Sunday, January 13, 2008

So Much To Say, So Little Time

For those of you who read the main page the last few months, you was some great reporting by a new member to the news team, Gia. Well, she's moved on to another job and left the news team here. I know I'll miss her multiple updates a day, and thorough reporting, it was a refreshing burst of energy to the news page. I wish the rest of the News Team luck in doing what they can to fill those shoes. A lot has been happening since I last posted, just the other night the mulberry tree we have in our yard decided to put itself out of it's misery and come down. Luckily, though it was hanging on the power line, it didn't pull it out. That's one less gripe I'll have to hear my parents complain about, the mulberry stains on the car. Other than that, I had an uneventful birthday, the celebration had to be moved down cause everyone but me works, so I'm at their mercy for when stuff can be done in that regard. Age is just a number to me anyway, I don't feel it one bit. I may have to see a Chiropractor, I've had tension in the shoulders for some time now, I think it's partly stress, but partly due to something being out of line in my neck/back. I'll decide that in the next few days. Money is always an issue with me, unfortunately, and that may make the decision for me. Some major news on my novel. I was doing some research on my own, and found some benchmarks to go on, and needless to say, I fell short of those. What that means is, I know why no one wanted my manuscript, it was too short. I am in the process of adding at least 10,000 words to what I thought was finished, hopefully bringing it up just over 40,000 words total will make it more appealing (one benchmark is 40,000 to 60,000 words, that's the one I'm shooting for). Don't worry, I kept the original manuscript, just for the sentiment later, and to compare the two with myself. It seems daunting to have to add 10,000 words, but I've posted 14,000 in one of my stories on the forum I frequent, and it's nowhere near done yet. Getting that many words together doesn't intimidate me, but it does mean courting agents and publishers will have to be pushed down a little bit, hopefully I'll be able to resume that by March and see some positive results to renewed courting efforts by fall or winter. On to other things now. As the saying goes "Be careful what you wish for." I'm certainly the testament to that this time around. If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down and read my last post, then pay close attention to the comments. Adam kind of caught me off guard with that one, I'll be the first to admit that. I suppose it's better to have that kind of open dialogue and direct interaction when it comes to the issues and questions we members bring up, especially in relation to the uncertainties surrounding the major overhaul TheOtaku.com is getting. I do regret that my standard "up-front" attitude may have reflected poorly upon me in this case, but a dragon can no more change his scales than a tiger his stripes. At least from this point on, I know I have his attention to some degree, and by virtue of that, I think anyone who comments here does as well, but no promises. Version Vibrant Updates Site Look: Design change. "Spikey" returns with new appearance. Logo change. Site Features: Advanced sort and filter settings. New/custom emoticons (Update: New Feature Details). Block user feature. Comment reply feature (Update: Feature Confirmed). E-mail notification system (pending confirmation). Photography related feature(s)[unspecified] (pending confirmation). Thumbnails (fan art, wallpapers etc) will be larger and/or higher resolution. Multiple Wallpaper Resolution Submissions. Avatars will be higher resolution/new size(pending confirmation). There are 50+ features coming with Version Vibrant. Some features will not be implemented at the launch, but come later. Cosplay hub: Will not carry over with launch of Version Vibrant. Will return in the future. Spaces (new blogging system): MyOtaku customizations not supported or carried over. HTML disabled. JavaScript disabled. BB code based input system. Youtube video embedding will be possible. Multiple "Spaces" per user supported. Multiple User posting tyo blog supported. Spaces privacy option(s) include being viewable only to members. MyOtaku sites: Sites will remain accessible. Updates to post will continue to function. Customization/coding will most likely continue to function (no details). MyOtaku layout will Not be changing. (Update: New Details). Will be linked to Version Vibrant for update notification. New Version Vibrant Members will not be able to obtain MyOtaku sites. You'll notice I posted the breakdown again. Well, that's because there has been more information about Version Vibrant being posted on the main page of TheOtaku.com. I'll link directly to those specifically, except for the first announcement because even though I reported it going to a dead page, it wasn't fixed. But worry not, I have a back-up to get you that information. So let's start with the new information. Actually, some of it is confirmation of already speculated information, and some of it gives more details to already known information as well. Feature Announcement #1 indicates that voting, subscribing, and favoriting will be more streamlined. There won't be that "back button hiccup" cause the page won't need to refresh to register the action. Here is the broken link to the posted article. Feature Announcement #2 is direct confirmation of the comment reply feature I listed in my breakdown last time (Note: I failed to flag that item as "Pending Confirmation" though it was at the time). Feature Announcement #3 details wallpaper resolutions. In that there will be options for higher resolution submissions, something like 10 or more resolutions will be available. Feature Announcement #4 details some of the stuff Spaces will be able to do, like one use will be able to set up multiple spaces under one account, they will be able to give other users posting privileges, and there will be some customization elements available, but what those are isn't specified. Feature Announcement #5 is only the second time I've been mentioned by name in News Articles (the first was when I donated that blue question mark image for caption battles etc). It follows up on the "many-to-many" blogging of the previous announcement with details on the privacy options for the Spaces. Unfortunately, right now Spaces will only have the ability to be set to be seen by everyone, or members only, if I read that post correctly. I believe blocking individual users though will prevent them from seeing your Spaces, not certain of that, but indications in the comments seem to point to it. There are plans in the works to develop more specific privacy filters for Spaces as well if I read that part correctly as well. Feature Announcement #6 provides more information on the Emotes that were alluded to in the trailer video. And we also have this mysterious teaser about something coming to Version Vibrant as well, though if you check my comment, my money is on the lightly touched Photography features previously mentioned. Won't say for sure till it's confirmed though, don't want to start any rumors prematurely. Digging up the older links is more time consuming than I though, so I didn't include them this time around either, I just linked existing stuff that had updated info to go with it. Here's the updated Version Vibrant breakdown. For anyone wanting to link directly to the breakdown in my post, use this: Version Vibrant Update That should take care of Version Vibrant for this post, and as before, I'll correct any bad info if I'm asked to do so. Comments Magnus Lensherr: It's hard for me to really say what the method to that is. I don't doubt he's gotten lots of complaints about the "no HTML" Spaces configuration, probably more than we know about. It is a respectable gesture to let us keep our MyOtaku sites, those of us who've been here since pretty close ot the beginning of MyO have become used to this set-up. Having the ability to have both Spaces and the MyO site, I'll probably test out some of the Spaces features, but I can't say that I'll blog there regularly until more specific privacy options become available. I have ideas that can benefit from the Spaces set-up, but only with some semi-enhanced privacy features. I suppose it depends on the definition of "feature" because some of the minor things could also be counted as "features" in that number. We're going to know some of what's coming, Adam is posting things on TheO regularly now, so more will be out there for us to know before Version Vibrant comes. As for the launch date, it's up to him to decide when enough is ready to put out to the public. I'd like to see him make his personal deadline this time, I think it would take a load off his shoulders, at least till the bug reports start gushing in. Actually, I missed the snow by less than an inch, hit the wet, salt covered brick real hard though. I think part of this tension in my shoulders could be related to that fall, I did hit the shoulder hard too, even though the knee took the brunt of it. The term "hacked" dredges up lots of negative connotations that I don't appreciate being applied to me as a person. I said something to that effect to Adam. We didn't break into the MyO servers and modify our pages there, we're using what we know, and only the tools provided by the site to go beyond the basic design. I certainly hope if the subject comes up in the future, he'll show more tact in calling us something less obscene than "hackers". Heck, I openly admit I'm gray hat, but I've never done anything malicious. As much as I hate to say it, I think the listening thing goes both ways. Now that we're getting positive information about Version Vibrant, I think it's up to us to make sure Adam knows where we still have questions, and where we're enthusiastic about stuff that's coming to us with Version Vibrant. I'm looking forward to the user block feature, the multiple spaces under one account (I do have ideas about that concept which I can't wait to try out). AngelBest Dream: Someone had to do it anyway, and since I was keeping tabs on my own, why not share it? I'll be doing my best to stay on top of all that stuff each time I post from here till Version Vibrant finally makes it's debut. I hope I can do reporting on it the justice it deserves. Yeah, I can rattle some bones with my big mouth when I need to, I've been told my call is loud enough to be heard halfway around the world, and beyond that seismometers, geophones, and hydrophone pick it up the rest of the way round. If he was still planning to mod MyO (from what I understand, he's dropped that), adding more character space to the introduction would be necessary to allow for the loss of the left menu details. I don't think we'll see anything on MyO by way of new features, old features being revamped and so on. His push is toward Spaces, and well, MyO just isn't that important to him anymore, even though we'd like to see it get some new things too, that won't happen. Time will tell for a lot of things. We won't really know how things play out till we see them succeed or fail. That's out of my realm of experience. I don't know how or if Adam and James will connect OtakuBoards to Version Vibrant (OB is connected to MyO now, in a small way), or if there will be something totally new by way of "forums" on Version Vibrant. Nothing has been said either way on that front, so no one knows for sure. Well, at least I have a possible answer to the publishing problem, and with that in mine, I'm working to correct it and will try making my rounds again after I fix my query and cover letters, and all that other good stuff that one has to prepare for publishers and agents. Tenshihoshino: Sometimes what is, and what appears to be are two different things. I know the readers of my blog value my opinions, but sometimes it seems that others do not. No matter what I do, I'll take all the good luck I can get, thanks. Adam: Welcome, welcome to the desert wasteland that is my mind, it's hot, dry, barely hospitable and full of rouges, outlaws, dragons, and lizards. Pull up a chair and have a nice tall glass of iced tea. I'm not used to having staff visit me here (though in my case that's usually a good thing given my attitudes and personality). Hopefully you'll make it back here once in a while at least and enjoy yourself when you do stop by. It wasn't an easy thing to go back over the notes I took and through pages and pages of posts to relocate stuff I didn't jot down to collect all that. It was worth the effort though, someone has to keep on top of the information coming out and present it in a meaningful way. The member base deserves to have ready access to as much public information about the launch and they can possibly get. I'll be updating that breakdown every time I post till Version Vibrant is launched from here on out. With you posting those announcements regularly, I'll not be running out of material to modify or add to that anytime soon. The gesture of posting those announcements like that is much appreciated too. I should being by saying that I meant no disrespect in my last post, sometimes one has to take a defensive posture to command attention when it's needed. I've noticed that I can disarm a person fairly effectively when I comment intelligently on a subject without having a lick of experience. More an more these days, I'm finding it hard to convince people in the offline world that my being unemployed at 27 does not mean I'm not intelligent. Like most things that come easy to me without personal experience, Public Relations (PR) is mostly common sense application of information exchange. PR is about sharing information with the public, be it good, bad or in between. The key is to balance what you want to do with the information you have (I know you like to surprise us at times, that's a neat novelty that makes things fun on occasion) with satisfying the public's, or in this case the member base's, need to know what's going on so we can plan our continued involvement with the site accordingly. What you said about announcing features then having to scrap them makes a lot of sense to me, probably more than you realize. My High School one year performed Plaza Suite, the Neil Simon play, well, they did parts of it actually, one actor never showed up for rehearsal so the director cut that whole act out of the play, five minutes before curtain on opening night, so there was no way to tell the audience they weren't getting the full play till curtain itself (even the programs and the cast/crew shirts have all three acts on them - I ran sound for that one). What I'm saying is, it's not fun to have to recant something at the last minute, but there are ways to announce a feature's potential without committing yourself to it absolutely being there, but that goes back to my "common sense application" statement above. An FAQ type document would be a big help to everyone here I'm sure. I'll be sure to link to it right here on my page and direct others with questions to it as well, when it's available. If I can do anything to help you put it together, you know how to get my attention. Oh, for the record, this is me being facetious. If you happened to see my statement in the last post regarding the novel I'm working on, that wasn't facetious, it wasn't joking. I'm 100% serious. Don't expect it anytime soon as the novel isn't published yet, but I'll get you the details when I can. kitbug69: From what I've seen in comments and so on, the MyO stats won't transfer over. I know I've seen information specifically on the number of visitors to the page, that number won't transfer over, I'm not entirely sure about the rest of the stat stuff or the guestbook entries. I do know that all submissions should remain intact, and that Version Vibrant will keep our usernames as they are (we won't have to sign-up again or anything like that). I'm not sure on the actual guestbook entries, but changes are those won't port over like the Quiz manager, which also won't be ported over to Version Vibrant. I won't speculate on technical stuff like account removal. I would think that their material would be removed if they deleted their account. My major issue with BB code is that it's overly proprietary. Sure it looks like a "standard" similar to HTML, but it fails in being a true standard across multiple applications. You go to any two BB based message boards (that aren't out of the same box) you'll find a lot of headaches when it comes to that "easy" coding, in that some of the code may not be supported, some of the code may have less support. Are we going to have the needed attributes to the BB tags for images (like align, alt and both in one tag), are we going to have tags for blockquotes, ordered and unordered lists? Will there be tags to let us post content the way we want it to render (pre for pre-formatted)? That's all stuff that's not clear right now, and among other things that I won't know till I try to do them, will affect the way I blog on Spaces. As for the code being easier, it's easier cause it's a step or two backward from where the W3C would like to see the web go. As I brought up with Adam above, PR is about balancing the way information is presented using common sense. There's a way to present a feature that does not commit it to "this IS part of the launch". With no training or experience in PR myself, I think I should stop there. All we can do right now is wait and see what happens, ride out the bugs and errors, and hope for the best. I think one of the better features with Spaces is the multiple Spaces per account thing. That's going to be a help to people like you who post your stories to a separate account, in theory, you won't have to do that anymore. NekoMimi16: There will be a lot lost to Version Vibrant, that's for sure, but I do think we gain some nice points as well. Hopefully things won't be so radically different that we suffer from culture shock just from getting a site overhaul. Being a hard-headed dragon, I know exactly what you mean there, but there are other things that hint at my opinion meaning less to some people than to others. Little things like questions not being answered and so on. I'd cite a specific instance, but I don't have one for you right now. AngelBest Dream: That happens to all of us sometimes. Yensid: Actually, I'm kind of unnerved about that, but at the same time I do feel better for having known he's seen what I said. Sounds like some rough weather there, hopefully it's gone through by now and things are dried out. Landscaping is a mess, I get a puddle on the back walk every time it rains. I'm working on solving that problem myself cause when contractors get involved here, so does the pretentious, stuck-up "historic district" and they're more trouble than they're worth. Only interested in preserving history when it suits them. I like rain and snow (I still want to get out to the Rail trail and shoot some pics of the tunnels in the snow), but in moderation. Cold is only good to me if there's snow to enjoy it with, and rain is good when it's moderate, not too heavy, not too light. Yeah, I'm doing all right, wish the weather would make up it's mind here so I wouldn't be worn out all the time. Caprice: Welcome back, long time no see. Sine you have the same info I do, I'll tell you that's the way I understand it myself. No new memberships will be done for MyO, the push will be for TheO and Spaces. Customization will be limited, we know there's no HTML, no CSS (it's HTML based after all), and no JavaScripts (no loss there for me I don't use scripts). We know there will be some form of BB style code, but what attributes will be available aren't known, we also don't know what kind of customization we will have available to work with on Spaces. I'm glad to know that he's letting us keep our MyO pages though, for me, MyOtaku was the second online community I called home, the first was the now defunct Tech TV message boards. I learned HTML for MyO here first, then discovered that hey, I can use this almost anywhere, and sure enough I have. I even learned enough CSS to get what I really wanted out of my page here, then turned to apply that to my website. It bothers me too, not from the standpoint of being interested in it as a hobby, but because I can do much more with it, than BB code will ever allow someone to do. I just hope there's enough room in the BB code of Version Vibrant to let me really do some of the core things I've come to accept. A lot of people have that impression, but we won't know till it launches what it's like. I won't know if it's a MySpace knock-off, I'm not even a member on that site, so I'll have no base of comparison. Hopefully it won't go that route, cause I hear not so good things about the MySpace model. Really? My friend plays drums every now and then for a rock band here that's got a bit of a following abroad I'm told. I'm not sure if he's in any of the clips or pictures on their MySpace page or not (I haven't gone over it yet), but here's the page to look at anyway, watch the volume, autoplay song alert. Yeah, I've been to other blogs, I hate with a passion WYSIWYG post editors (watch that be a feature of Spaces), those give me fits, I've been overwhelmed with stuff and underwhelmed with stuff on blogs elsewhere too, like dA's "pay for everything but posting plain text" model. I like having a simple blog that progresses with me as I learn more about HTML, CSS and so on, and lets me do what I want with it from the start. If I want to post pictures, I shouldn't have to pay for that privilege, if I want to customize my page, I shouldn't have to pay for that privilege either. None of the other blogs I've been to will grow with me, and let me do what I want from the start. I'd like to combine all the friends I have into one spot, it would be easier on me for sure, but that can't be helped. People go where their interests are, and sometimes that me ans we have to follow them to keep in touch. I haven't been myself last year at all in terms of posting, I just got so overwhelmed with stuff and didn't get around to sites, didn't comment much, and I'm working on getting better at that this year, Hopefully I can do that and not wear myself out. I know I've heard a lot of people talk about leaving over the Spaces "no HTML" thing, but yeah, it's been quiet around here for a long time. Hopefully more people will come around and hopefully we'll see some old faces stop by more often too. Ranting helps sometimes, getting those concerns out there is the only way to see them addressed. That's about all we can do right now, is wait and see how it goes. Once VV is out, we'll know where we stand. Actually this year is going better for me right now. Same time last year I was in a paranoid state of mine, and thought I'm tired, and a little sore, I'm feeling all right this year. Hopefully this year is enough to recover from last year. 2007 was just plain exhausting all around. Animé Dreams!

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Friday, January 4, 2008

Update on Version Vibrant (From A Non-Staff Perspective)

There are times I wonder if my opinions matter. Lately, it's seeming like, to some people, my opinions are not as important as those of others. I do my best to be open and honest, and for my efforts, I get, well nothing. I'm not talking about anyone who regularly reads and comments to my blog, but in Adam's last few posts about Version Vibrant (more information on those posts in a little bit), I kind of get the impression that my concerns are being dodged. That's not the way to show members their opinions are important. Adam's usually really good at PR stuff, but in this case, for Version Vibrant, he's left a lot to be desired in that department. Giving us only partial info and telling us what we WON'T be able to do with the "Spaces" blog system instead of what we WILL be able to do is not really selling many people on the change. In order to get more people like myself and those who use HTML for personalizing their MyOtaku pages, he's going to have to pony up a couple useful bits of specific information regarding things that we will be able to do on "Spaces". Unfortunately, I don't have the energy anymore to keep on him to provide that kind of concrete information for us if he's not going to do it on his own. that in mind, I'm banning myself from providing him with any feedback about Version Vibrant before it's launch from here on out. He wants my two cents, he'll have to ask for it directly. As I mentioned before, we have some new information about Version Vibrant again. Most importantly, there is a tentative lauch window of "this month" (January) for Version Vibrant. Whether or not we see that happen is another story, but it's good to have even a general idea of when to expect it. My guess would be on late January for a tentative launch, but that's speculation on my part. Another piece of information from the linked post is that Cosplay will be held back and not relaunched with Version Vibrant, but it will come back later. As well as some photography related features coming to the site. There are some more details about the fate of MyOtaku coming down the pike as well, and what's being said about it brings up more questions. and if you haven't read the comments to Adam's blog on the e-mail notification system, there's a subtle clue about another feature that may or may not be coming to Version Vibrant. In keeping the promise I made a while back, here's as complete a breakdown of Version Vibrant as I have available to me at this time. I've collected this info from comments Adam has made and information he's posted in his blog, as well as the promo "trailer". For links to relevant parts, you'll have to dig through my archives, I'm too lazy to do that association today. Site Look: Design change. "Spikey" returns with new appearance. Logo change. Site Features: Advanced sort and filter settings. New/custom emoticons. Block user feature. Comment reply button. E-mail notification system (pending confirmation). Photography related feature(s)[unspecificed]. Thumbnails (fan art, wallpapers etc) will be larger and/or higher resolution. Avatars will be higher resolution/new size(pending confirmation). There are 50+ features coming with Version Vibrant. Some features will not be implemented at the launch, but come later. Cosplay hub: Will not carry over with launch of Version Vibrant. Will return in the future. Spaces (new bloggins system): MyOtaku customizations not supported or carried over. HTML disabled. Javascript disabled. BB code based input system. Youtube video embedding will be possible. MyOtaku sites: Sites will remain accessable. No word on continued/future customization support. Updates to post will continue to function. MyOtaku layout will be changing (left menu will be altered) Will be linked to Version Vibrant for update notification. That's what I know so far, I hope I didn't leave anything out, and I hope nothing presented is speculative on my part, though much of it probably is. I'll correct any mistakes should they be brought to my attention. The nicer the correction is brought to my attention, the more polite and timely I'll be about correcting it. Save all your data from your profile and your styles and your post styles as soon as possible cause when things change with MyO (the menu thing I mentioned earlier), there's the possibility that some data will have to be reinput. Hopefully nothing serious will be lost in the process. For Non Version Vibrant related news, it snowed here in WV again, and I took a dive on my front walk. Not fun. I'm scraped, bruised, and sore, but otherwise all right. No seious injuries, I managed to catch myself the right way to avoid those. Also, on New Years Eve, I watched my friend play in a band to ring in the new year, it's really cool to see him play the drums. If the band gets a video up with him playing, I'll link to it here, or post it or something so you all can see it. I don't have their website link just yet either, but I'll have that soon too. Comments Magnus Lensherr: Like I said, BB code is wannabe HTML that has no real benefits to the real deal, aside from locking people into a pseudo-proprietary situation where they are at the mercy of the input system. I've come across it in my day, and I hate it because there are things I can do on one BB code forum that guess what? The other BB forum doesn't allow it. That's what annoys me, theres no set standard for BB code like the W3C has for HTML. At least with HTML I know how to do the stuff I want to do without worrying about "is this tag supported by this system?" questions. Anything that supports HTML will accept the coding I use. The good news is that MyO will still be around, but how functional the backroom style features will be is still up in the air. It will be getting a face-lift of it's own, the menu bar on the left will be changing, but will that be for the better or worse, I don't know right now. Getting notified via e-mail is a great idea, I check my e-mail first when I get online anyway, and I get on really late in the day anyway, so a daily digest type of format would suit me fine, and I'm sure others will find it useful as well, particularly those who can't or don't get online every day. Given the change he's mentioned to MyO, yeah, I really think he should have looked at MyO and built that up instead of just pushing it off to the side. He wants to limit "hacking" (I still hate that term being applied to site personalization), then disabling JavaScripts as well as limiting the area which CSS will affect to prevent the whole layout from being altered (it can be done, DeviantArt has that set-up) but allowing users to still customize their blog space could be done to the existing structure of MyO without taking away users ability to use HTML in their posts. I don't understand his madness, and I'm seeing no method to it other than to try to aggravate long time members who've used HTML for some time. What good with that do? All I can tell you right now is to go with your gut, and we'll have to see what happens. Tenshihoshino: You too. Alphonse122: I knew in early February with the Anime FF thing that it was going to be a hard year for me. I didn't realize just how bad till I was reflecting on it the other day. I know a time is tough when my art suffers, and last year it did that royally. Hopefully we'll both see a brighter more positive 2008. This is somthing he's had on the back of his mind since at least 2005, so it is long overdue, and it's going to be major if the hints are any indication. You too. AngelBest Dream: I'm never funny on purpose, but glad to know that point was amusing. That's what I meant by Adam's PR of Version Vibrant being poor. He's put a lot of attention on the negatives of "Spaces" the blogging system, but has said little to nothng about the other features at all. From what I understand though, the art system is in no danger of being adversely affected. I'm assuming the Friends list will be ported over as well, but then again, there's nothing saying it will, there's nothing saying it won't. More questions than answers is hardly good PR for a major site revamp. BB code should be left to those quack "out-of-box" Message board programs. It should NEVER be used to format blogs. I got three major projects done, so the others should be cake from there. I'll update my long forgotten project table and see where things go. I've decided to drop a few non-essential projects, the "surprise" one I was going to do for here will come in that guise, but it'll be one of my other projects pulling double duty, I had something planned for dA as well, I think I'll just post a story or something there instead. I'd be curious to see how others respond to my writing rather than posting more artwork. I don't get a lot of attention for my photos over there either. Success is hard work, and I'm finding that out the hard way with this novel. I hate to have to put anything like that aside, but I may have to move on to other projects and come back to this one another time if I don't see any inkling of progress in the path I'm taking it. Yensid: Right now we've got a "This month" being January target date. Not really specific, but it's better than nothing at this point. As you can see, I don't do anything "radical" with my page here either, most of my code just makes the blog look all nice and professional with indented paragraphs, and text wrapping images and so on. I don't like to mess with the whole layout because new members to the site can't find the links as easily that way, and if you forget to put one on the page somewhere, that makes them all the more confused. I like to have my text the way it is, and I really like to wrap text around images, I don't need a whole lot of fancy stuff, just what I have now and the ability to enhance or add on to what I know when new things come along that help me present myself in a clean professional manner. It don't take much to make me a happy dragon when it comes to blogging, at least we'll still be able to update here on MyO. As for SomeGuy and Adam. I know Someguy's big on the written word, but Adam, not so much given his anti Articles and Reviews attitude. All the more reason I fully intend to donate several copies of my novel when it's published to TheO with the stipulation they be prizes for a writing contest. I like the notification system cause there are times of the day when this page is a real pain to load up (5:00AM to 9:00AM Eastern time - every single day), and knowing that there's no need for me to be on the site fighting with with the server lag will be a plus to me. Hopefully he gives us some options other than an on/off switch, being that basic would be annoying. if it turns into dA ¼, I'll be using it a lot less myself, probably won't blog on a system like that at all, just comment and get under people's skin like I seem to do these days. It's your choice to delete that site, I have found it to be a help to my artistic skill. By now everyone here should know how I feel about passing on knowledge, so I'd hate to see all that effort go to waste by just being gone. Hopefully you can provide those tips and resources somewhere. I'd share my own creative abilities if I were better at what I do, and eventually I will be writing a woodburn tutorial (for the adventurous with no feeling in their fingers), as well as a walk-through of the publishing experience when I am published for that insight to be relevant. I've said many times over the years that those of us who have knowledge in an area really must pass that on to those who seek it. I hope it's an easy year all around, 2007 was probably the worst I've been through to date, and I hope I can say that for a long time to come. May 2008 be positive for all. Iruka Sensei: Thanks, I think of all the people I know here on MyO quite often. Come again when you can, and hopefully have more time to do so. Animé Dreams!

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Sunday, December 30, 2007

Last Post of 2007

This will be my final blog post of 2007 here, hopefully 2008 will see happier things in terms of my blogging. If I don't get around in the next couple days, Happy New Year! My apologies to everyone who sent cards over the holidays, I didn't really have the time or energy to code up a decent table for them all, so I didn't get them put up here. I also never got to finish mine for the year. I spent the last couple hours revamping a long dead project to go along with my web site, that was my forum. I did archive a lot of the old data, and I've gotten it started going the the direction I want to take it. I did take the time to provide a specifc topic to provide feedback on my Holiday Story (which has not been updated lately, just the two parts are up), should anyone be interested. The next installment of that story will be up soon, though I may not mention it here given the response I'm getting so far. Once again some new information to report about Version Vibrant, and this one's a real deal breaker for me. Before Christmas, Adam mentioned in a blog post that input coding for the new blogging system will not be HTML based. He's opting for a crude, primitive and somewhat proprietary pseudo-coding system better known as UBBC code, the kind like use on VBulletin, Invision, Proboards, and many other message boards out there, the [b][/b], [i][/i], [url][/url] type wannabe HTML coding. The benefits of that pseudo-code are debatable in terms of being more efficient, or even superior to HTML coding. Adam is also taking the stance that customization (or personalization) of blogs isn't important (see his comments to the blog post), in spite of all the feedback he's getting from members saying it is important to them to be able to make their blog page their own in some way. We're not all copy and paste George Orwell 1984 clones here. We want to be unique, and for our pages to stand out from the rest in our own ways. I absolutely will not use the new system if it treats me like I'm an ignorant "|\|3T n00b" with that kind of baby fake html coding. Since Adam is asking for feedback this time, please go share your thoughts on an e-mail notification system. He's considering something that would send users e-mails when we get comments or Private Messages. I've already posted my two cents there, if you want your voice heard, now's the time to speak out. I'm still waiting to hear back from the cellular carrier. They did send me a brief message telling me what I already know about the situation, so I hammered back at them with a few questions that will make or break my relationship with them, depending on how they answer them. At least I was honest with them about that point, I had to be clear to them that I'm not playing around. Lastly, I've done some mod work to my page here, probably the last mod work I'll ever do to it. While we know the bulk of the customization here will not be carried over to the new system, we don't know just how much will no longer be functional here on the current spread. I wanted to get as much in as possible on that. Don't think that because it's no longer up, my PM policy is no longer in effect. I have it linked up there in the intro for all to see, and will keep it up there until such time as I am able to block users, then if I am able to remove it, I will do so. Also, I changed my button, so now I've got all the Lizard Line lizards featured in the theme here somewhere. Comments Magnus Lensherr: I think the site does need an update, but what Adam is doing is taking years of subtle developments and throwing them at us in a relatively short time. Some of the stuff he's doing is completely unnecessary, and will alienate some of the members here. Is it worth losing some long-time members over nonsense in the hopes of attracting more people? What he's doing with the customization and the new blog coding system amounts to slapping the members in the face, particularly the members who took the time to learn HTML, CSS, and, in some cases, javascript to do more with their pages here. That's not a good way to maintain a positive relationship with long term members who have contributed to the site over years. I see a lot of trouble coming out of that one user group alone. Down to the question of nomination/approval, their ranks will be plagued with the doubts of favoritism among the staff that got them that title, as well as how they are treated when it's apparent they abuse their power. We'll just have to wait and see what goes down with that, but I can assure you, there will be some feathers ruffled, or in my case, scales. Change can be a good thing if it's done right. Why he couldn't put the time into adding features to the current MyO site, I don't really know. The way this change is being handled, that's what's not good. Taking away stuff that people have used for years now, that's going to hurt the site more than it helps. If I just signed on as a new member after Version Vibrant came out, and I got to hearing about how the site used to be, and how the founder ignored the member's opinions for whatever reasons as he implemented his new version, I'd be less inclined to stay, period. I wouldn't feel that I could go to the founder with any feedback about bugs, feature requests, or opinions on anything cause he didn't listen to regular members, why would he listen to a newbie? I'm looking into my options of alternate carriers, just in case my current one decides to test my mettle. You know, I've been relying on that phone and voicemail to function as my primary point of contact for publishers/agents for that manuscript I'm still working to get published. They messed it up, they should certainly be able to fix it one way or another, or I take my business to a more reliable carrier. redmoonchick: I'm sure there will probably be some customization to a degree, but what Adam's doing away with is the ability to use CSS and scripts and such to rearrange the page layout, and all that other stuff that people have done here. In my case, I'll lose my paragraph indents, the text appearance (font face, color, size, style), the invisible hyperlink border around images (I hate that thing), my text appearance fix for blockquotes and lists (so they match the blog test, not the site default text), my ability to float images to one side or the other and have the text wrap around them (not leaving the big gaps of empty space which I detest), my breaks between comment answers, the formatting for topic headings (the text between the horizontal rules) in my posts, the appearance of my username links, stuff like the weather bug I removed will probably not be supported either. And that's just one site's simple stuff, those people who have completely done over their sites in novel ways, they'll lose a lot more than what I just told you about my coding. AngelBest Dream: That's all views and votes are to me, just numbers. I do appreciate the views and votes I get, especially from friends who know me and are interested in my work genuinely. I also appreciate comments and other feedback as well when it's sincere and genuine. In reading your personality descriptors there, I think I fit into number 4 myself. I may not get around to the art like I used to or want to, but I do try. It was the art that made me sign up here on MyO way back in 2003 in the first place. The site is going in the wrong direction, that's for sure. It's trying too hard to popularize the wrong things, while taking some of the basic amusements away from members who have no other incentive to stick around. Outlaw Melfina: The emoticons do need an update we've have the same basic message board ones for so long now, and the change isn't all bad. The fact that we'll be getting a user block feature is impressive, as well as stuff like resampled thumbnails. I just think the premise behind the change though, and some of the features (or lack thereof) are bad moves to make for the direction of the site. From what I understand, someone would have to nominate you, and an administrator would then have to approve that nomination for you to get the title. That's going to raise some questions about favoritism in and of itself, but we'll just have to see how that goes as it's implemented with Version Vibrant. Yensid: I have issues logging in and browsing the site between 5-9AM eastern time, which would equate to 2-6AM your time I believe. Comment boxes give me trouble in those hours as well. SomeGuy is one of the site staples around here. He was one of the most vocal critics of the Articles and Reviews hubs being taken down, but after Adam pulled his "any mention of those are spam" maneuver, he kind of stopped lobbying for them when he shouldn't have. He is a good writer and witty from what I've seen of his postings on the main page (he's doing some of the news items now), and in comments to Adam's blog. I don't think I'd ever get the opportunity to meet him at all in person though, cause I don't see myself being able to make a trip to the West Coast for a convention, and I doubt he'd come all this way to attned one either. It wasn't like over the top in your face constant foulness of the mouth. It came and went in quick little bursts that probaby went unnoticed by a lot of people (unless the first time they aired it was an edited version while the marathon wasn't). To me, there were a couple lines that struck me in the way the foul language was put in. The lines could easily have been written to be just as "hostile" in intent or tone, without the foul language in them at all. If I were giving Tin Man a grade, it would be D-. The acting, writing, and language all conspired against that show big time. What you're looking at now is done very much with CSS coding. Since I don't have a web enabled phone to test in those browsers, I can't say if my code will work there or not, but it does all right in IE 6 and FireFox when I don't mess up the punctuation or spelling of tags and stuff. I don't code specific to a browser, I use W3C standards for my code and those are supposed to be all browser compliant. If the browser don't support it, the browser isn't up to W3C standards and needs to be updated to a current version that is, or replaced by one that's compliant. The W3C is the international organization that sets all the standards for the Internet from HTTP protocal to what tags are valid in HTML. I kept the default template here, and would do so in the new version as well, I just like to know where all the links are that way. I have done some things to make my blog more streamlined in appearance and format, things that won't carry over to the new system, and that's what I don't like. That's the working title from what I understand, I certainly hope Adam changes it to something more appropriate. I think if I were nominated for that title, I'd have to decline it on principle. I wouldn't want to get caught up in the fight that's bound to happen when members and those with this title are at odds over "backseat modding" and questions of bias in the appointment process, and treatement of the titled members when issues of harassment or power abuse surface (and we both know it will happen). I'll have no part in that myself. Aside from that, I don't think I fit the ccriteria Adam listed for that user group anyway. I don't make too many e-cards or wallies, I just throw those together for fun. In fact the first one I put up here, that was just something that hit me as I watched the Gasaraki DVD. I don't go out of my way to make that kind of stuff either, just when the mood strikes me. I could do worlds of stuff from Spirited Away, I have over 600 captures from that, but I just don't have the interest in making stuff to have a big portfolio. I'm leaving the plagiarism thing alone, what I say regarding that has had a tendancy to bite my backside lately, and I don't need that again. Unfortunately, my credit is horrible and I'd cringe to see the deposit they'd want, if it's like the others around here, not pretty. My options are limited to the the prepaid scene of the TracFone (my current headache) variety. There are others on that vein I can look into and will do so more thoroughly should I need to play my cards and drop TracFone. Being unemployed and with a family on a limited budget, I can't exactly put money into pricier service right now. the real yojimbo: At the rate he's going, it'll be a wonder if anyone posts with the new blog system at all. timechaser: Well, I've cast my judgement already, based on all the prior stuff and this new little piece of info I posted. That's the problem. Adam's not listening before he does this stuff. Eventually it will catch up to him and do some real irreparable damage to the site's credibility, and his own. Mamma Vash: I learned HTML, and then CSS, to be able to do things with my page. I don't doubt there will be some form of "closed" customization, but I know we won't be able to do the advanced stuff we can do now. Adam calls that type of personalization "hacking" and he's vowed that the new blog system with be "close to hack-proof". What we will and won't be able to do with the new blog system is yet to be seen, but expect a load of headaches with the UBBC style input coding at least. Unless I'm mistaken, Paul Revere was caught before he finished his mission that night, and I don't intend to go down that way. I'm more of an annoying minstrel bringing you the news in my off-key tone-deaf timbre to make even the bad news at least sound silly. All-in-ones are great for lots of things, but stay away from Lexmark. Well, it's not so much a signal problem as those buffoons screwing up my voicemail. Possibly when they fouled up my phone about two months ago. I'll drop them like a lead brick if they don't correct their mistake. twilight samurai: I haven't been getting around to sites that much myself lately. After the holidays hopefully I'll be able to do more of that. That bit of shameless self-promotion on my part aside, the nature of thumbnails is to be a quick reference to the eyes, they're not really designed for high quality. Even the large image though doesn't compare to holding the wood in you hands and seeing it in person, but they can't replicate that online just yet, so images have to do. The gesture of putting up the thumbnail was a kind one, and very much appreciated. I do think that my jesting kind of got lost in the mock seriousness of the whole thing though. When I read Adam's post about the UBBC style input coding for the new blog system, that just set me off something fierce. I'm smarter than that, I don't need to be babied with pseudo-html wannabe coding, I want to use what I know in a productive and effective manner. If I don't get that, I just won't be able to use the blog to it's full potential, and won't get enough out of it to post regularly in the new system, if I post at all. The thing is Adam hasn't said anythig about a date for the Version Vibrant release yet. I think he's shooting for possibly early next year, but I don't know he hasn't made any indication at all. Given that he's telling us more about it in little snippets, I'll bet it's coming sooner than we realize. I can't get regular cell service, I have to go with prepaid service since my credit is bad enough that I'd have to put out way too much money to the regular carriers in my area no matter which one I went with. I have issues with Verizon internet as it is anyway, so I don't need any more headaches with them. I have some options I can look into though, I'm not worried just yet. Animé Dreams!

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Someone Ban Commercialized Christmas, Please!

Thank you to everyone who sent holiday e-cards. I'll have them up on site here this weekend sometime, and I hope to have mine ready and posted here by then too. Also, my holiday shopping is finally done. The second installment to my holiday story is up. More specific information is out about Version Vibrant. In a comment to an Otaku Opinion Poll over on the TheO main page recently, Adam specifically stated that the customizations of MyO will NOT be carried over to the new version. Personally, that's the burg what sank Titanic if you ask me, part of the fun of blogging here is the ability to do things with the page that other sites don't allow, or make difficult. See this week's Otaku Opinion Poll comments for Adam's in context and unedited posting. I'm annoyed cause the time I was putting into a new theme could have been better spent on the artwork I'm overdue on. Also in Version Vibrant related news, Adam is working on several "user groups" of admin appointed member titles. He provided basic information on one such title, tentatively the "Otaku Honor Guard" which will probably spiral into friends of staff and be the biggest group of condoned harrassers on Version Vibrant. Based on what Adam provided about that particular user group's function. I can easily see people using it for, as SomeGuy put it in his comment on the post "backseat modding". I do not see that concept working as it is intended. My Cell phone provider is a complete [Censored]. They fouled up my voicemail account and I told them that if they don't fix it, they can play their games all they want I'll take my business to another more reliable provider. I will do that when my current obligation runs out in late January. Comments NekoMimi16: I can't speak for my own writing style or ability. Every artist is hyper critical of his or her own works. Read and just decide that for yourself is all I can offer. I know people who don't have daily or weekly access to sacanners or digital cameras, so they tend to upload a lot when they have the time and resources to do so. I don't really think it's fair to that type of user to cap the number they can submit cause certain artists are whining that their works aren't getting views and such. Adam also caused part of the problem by setting up the system to bypass moderation after so many works are submitted. He set the system up to be flooded with works that way. Maybe he should start by rescinding that "hidden" feature and seeing how that works first. It still takes my works a while to show up, mine have to go through moderation, why should someone else's works not have that same process just cause they submitted more works over time? That's hardly fair either. Shireishou: Nice to see you around again. I was wondering what happened to you. the titles for all fo the pieces actually came from statements in the comment that inspired the artwork. Just knowing I did a good job on it, and that you like it is saying enough. Well, I don't want to get you in trouble for being online. come around when you can, but don't push it to get on if your boss don't like it too well. Best of luck with the new job. Yeah, a lot is going down right now, and in the near future I think. The Version Vibrant thing has a lot of people really confused and there's a lot of conflicting info going around about it, that's why I'm putting together a comprehensive report on Version Vibrant, what's to expect with it, what's going to change, how will it affect MyO and so on. Just keep reading my blog here when you can, I'll have Version Vibrant updates on it as often as I can. I miss your posts too, I hope to see you back in action here real soon. AngelBest Dream: Gathering information is something I'm told I'm good at, but seeing "the whole picture" in this case is more luck than anything else. Spotting gems requires being in the right place at the right time to see that stuff. Like that first Version Vibrant piece I posted. Normally I don't respond to those polls, but that one I had to, and sure enough there was Adam's statement regarding the MyO customizations. I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of web commerce and site proffitability, but I think in the end it comes down to the question "who is the site for?" If the bulk of what's being done is to resemble competing sites or web models, or to cater to advertiser whims, then the site shouldn't be there at all in my opinion. This site is about the members, what the members provide in feedback should at least have some bearing on the future developments of the site. Yahoo! fails to consider it's members' opinions when it changes features and things, and that site is falling apart more and more each day in terms of features randomly breaking down, long-time features not working for over a year or more, and so on. It's an insult to the members to tell them "this is how it's going to be and you're going to like it.", that's antagonistic, and counter productive to wanting to bring more people in. I don't think restricting the number of art each member can submit in a day is the solution to the problem. The problem isn't the number of works being submitted, it's about popularity, plain and simple. There's a faction of ill-tempered artists on here who went whining to Adam about not getting high view counts and demanding that the "flood of 'inferior to mine' art be stopped by limiting the number of works they can submit" to the point he's blindly taken that road. I can see a number of good anime fan artists being turned off to TheO for it having that submission restriction feature. No site as big as what Adam wants to make this has that kind of self-inflicted shot in the foot type of feature. And I can see real problems coming if the submission upload page does not provide clear and direct information on the submission limits as well. I don't comment on every artwork I view, I don't vote on every artwork I view, and I don't favorite every artwork I view either. I have to be moved to do those things, something has to stir in me the passion to say something profound and intelligent. I'm not the type of person to just pop in and go "Dazz c00l!" to a piece of art, just to say I commented on the art. I could comment more than I do, I realize that, but number of comments isn't going to go up for those artists who think limiting the amount of submissions we can upload here is going to get them more views. If people aren't lookng now, they're not going to look when there's "less filler" as some would say. It just won't happen. I'd like to see what other asinine ways they try to beat Adam into implementing to gain those numbers that they crave, cause I guarantee you, they won't work either. If that's about the calendar or the novel, I'm not giving up on the novel, I just have to change my approach and list my landline phone in future solicitations with the manuscript/proposal package. The Calendar will not be valid after next year so it's pretty much a wash considering it hadn't sold a single copy since I made it available. No point dwelling on the failures, just the possibilities right now. If it's about something else, I'm not sure I know what you mean. Animé Dreams!

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Friday, December 14, 2007

My Work Here is Never Done

If you haven't noticed already, I pulled down the calendar link I had up earlier than I'd intended (I set a date of December 15th for that take-down), I don't think the extra week or so would have made a difference anyway given the numbers. Kind of hard to hold onto something when all it comes out to in the end is 0. Just one more line item to add to the list of failed projects under my belt to date. As I promised (at least I think I did), here is the first installment to the holiday story I'm working on. If nothing else, it give you all a taste of my writing style. Hope you enjoy it, and I'll keep you all updated on when the new chapters go up, it's not going to be super long, only three to five chapters actually. Most of the work goes into coding up the pages that the story parts are on, and modding the other pages that connect to them. Unfortunately, I don't have a feedback method (I don't even have my e-mail up) on my personal web site yet, so you'll have to comment here if you're so inclined, or you could e-mail me the link is right over there to the left. Some new information is out now, I think it's a very light look at some of what to expect in the Version Vibrant release. Another "feature" that's now known is a cap on submissions. I have no valid opinion on that since I'm not prolific enough to worry about it, but I can see a bit of a rough road for TheO in having that. See Adam's blog post for as much of the detail as he provided there. Those other woodburns have been delayed again. No clue on a new date for them yet. Comments kitbug69: Yeah, seeing those words on the screen of the vid was really something. Hopefully it will serve it's purpose. Hopefully it won't ever come to the point where I have to post a PM, but till the user block is in place, that will be my policy on handling certain types of PM communications. So do I. Yensid: I noticed that bad link in the e-mail. Actually I caught the posting here on site directly before I got the e-mail, but I did see the bum and corrected links in the e-mails. Pays to be on that mailing list, you get stuff like that once in a while. A lot of people are commenting that the video didn't really say much. Adam himself acknowledged that he didn't really give the AMV director who made the promo vid much to work with. For some reason he's keeping a lot close to the vest on this upgrade, kind of makes me wonder. Yeah, there are more questions than answers with that user block. I would hope that ideally it would knock out all points of contact, PM, comment, guestbook, and e-mail link, heck it should block the user from being able to access the page and portfolio at all, but that's just my opinion. We won't know till it gets here how it works and how it doesn't work. Cosplay is not gone yet, but Adam did mention he was thinking about "retiring" it like Articles and Reviews. See here, here, and here for that info. I make a point of linking those "dead" hubs every chance I get to keep them as alive as I can. I will do the same for Cosplay if it gets the same treatment that the other two got. Yeah, getting a REGULAR e-newsletter would be nice for the people who don't use RSS to get the news feed from the main site, or read Adam's blog for the site info he does post there. Maybe it's costly to send one out regularly, I don't know how e-mail lists work, but I do know that could be handled more efficiently. If he needs to outsource to someone to take care of that, I'd volunteer to take care of that myself. Ah, that's helpful information that I'll get right on looking up. Actually physical costs wouldn't be too high, wood's not that expensive, neither are the shipping costs. Time is relative since there are multiple aspects of the projects. I will have to figure out an average of how long it takes me to do a small piece and crunch some numbers from there to estimate the larger ones. Actually, I was underwhelmed by Tin Man when I saw it. The matriarchal society was a gambit that worked well for the story, I don't think that environment could have been portrayed any other way at all, but with the name it had, it should have addressed that character more than it did, or had a different name. Something I picked up on throughout was that the writers went to too many extremes on both ends of a writing spectrum. Were they paying homage to the original work, or was it a new take on the story? I couldn't tell. The story bounced back and forth between the two concepts with such force that it made my head hurt at times. They should have found one really profound element from the original, and made that the only homage in the whole thing (that does not include character elements that are necessary to give the story it's relation to the original). Throw away stuff like the "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" bit, just seemed fake and unrealistic in the setting of this take on the story, and actually those kinds of things annoyed me. One other thing that disturbed me was the gratuitous profanity. There were times when bad language was completely inappropriate, yet it was used anyway. That's the hallmark of bad writing, using course language in that manner is a turn off for the program, because to me it reflects the writers' and the director's insecurity about the program to carry itself. It was like they put some of the cursing in there just because they "could do it". What I saw in Tin Man, was a whole lot of wasted potential. There was so much more that could have been done had the people responsible for the script actually stuck to one direction from start to finish. I've got some decor up, did that the other night. Not sure when the rest is going up though. the real yojimbo: Well, now, that would be scary. AngelBest Dream: Good to know you're not stressing so much anymore. There's nothing on here that can't wait for another day or two if you get bogged down. And thanks on the woodburns. When I get the others done I'll upload them and get them in the table with the others. You said it. Like I said before, take your time, don't rush, and get some rest. Those messages aren't going anywhere. Iruka Sensei: I suppose so, but Hal or Cosmic works better for me. Yeah, thanks for coming by, and I like the holiday avatar, can't go wrong with the classics. Animé Dreams!

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Sunday, December 9, 2007

Quick Blurb

The trailer for Version Vibrant went up on Friday. I watched it, and for the most part it didn't say much. One feature it did mention specifically was a "block user" feature which has been asked for by many members for some time now. I recently joined the bandwagon wanting to see that feature show up, so I'm happy to know that little bit about Version Vibrant. A quick announcement. I hope to have the first part of a special short story ready for linking here next time I post. Consider it a special gift for the holiday season. No details till linking time though, sorry. I'd post it directly here, but with the new version coming, I don't want to lose any formatting, so I'll just link to an external site hosting it. Still working on the art stuff as well, I'm almost a whole year behind now. Hopefully I can get something done on those pieces this month. Comments twilight samurai: I'm glad you like it. I did put that green digital signature on the scans, only because I can't burn a green signature on the pieces, wood only burns in brown or black. By all means use it how you want. Yensid: Don't worry about missing the boat this time, there will be other opportunities for suggestions. Actually, you bring up a very good question. I had planned to address the idea of doing commission work a little later, after I got my other pieces done and shown off here, but now is as good a time as later to take care of that. Yes, I will take commissions. Now, I don't really have a clue how the whole commission thing works, so I'll be learning all that business as I go, but I'm game to try anything if it helps my art improve. Well, my policy will be obsolete when Version Vibrant kicks in, I won't need to worry because the much requested block user feature is said to be coming with the upgrade. That will make it easier on everyone cause, plain and simple, I'll block the people who try to dodge public discussion of the issues they don't want my readers to know they disagree with me on, then they won't get a voice with me at all. I don't really see myself being all that deep, but that's probably because I don't really do much other than my art, writing and watch animé I try to avoid the pitfalls of doing a "daily diary" type of thing where there a lot of action and little substance. To be honest, I don't really do enough to do that kind of accounting of my days, so I generally avoid it. I know what you mean about getting to know people. Sure there's a novelty to knowing the mundane stuff, but human beings (and dragons :þ ) are more than just what color socks wear and what times we go to bed. I think a lot of the people I try to keep up with here go beyond the mundane and further into what makes them, as individuals, tick. Short of being myself, there's no one else I can be. I missed the first part of that, so I stayed away from the rest so that the story will make sense when I do get to see it all. I'm hoping they run it again soon so I can get to see it. Of all the stuff I heard about it, only one person didn't like it, and that was my brother who's opinion on many things is skewed so I put little stock in his dislike for it. Too many people I know online here say more good about it, so I'll give it a chance when I can. AngelBest Dream: Sounds like you need to take a break from something. Pushing too hard can affect your ability to think, and create. Always rest up when you can so you're not running ragged on 20 things at once. I'm glad you like what you see in the woodburns. I did try my best to do them well. You don't have to rush to get an answer to me on that kind of thing, take care of older/more important ones before getting to mine, and REST UP before you respond as well. Hopefully I'll have a few more up here in the coming weeks Woodburn and non-wood alike. No promises on the non-wood ones though. JD Person I've heard some things about a couple people getting less than pleasant treatment in the recent months. I've seen the same thing happen before here, it seems to go in cycles, and well, now I have a story where it happened to me too, not just my friends. Thank goodness that user block feature is coming. That will be a help in many ways to reduce that kind of attitude around here. Maybe it'll get people to think a little more clearly about how they express their opinions to others. It's okay to not agree with someone, but there's a line between having a difference of opinion with someone and being confrontational about the disagreement. Saying simply "I don't agree, here's where I'm coming from-" will get people a lot further than "You're completely wrong-" ever will. Do I see myself as being brave? No, I think I'm either incredibly stupid, or stubborn, or an unhealthy mix of the two. I've never been the type to be scared off by one or two little annoyances, and I'm going to continue to be like that. I just don't know any better than to hold my ground. I think there are people far more brave than I here on site though. The ones who actively express their dissatisfaction to Adam over the closing of Articles and Reviews sites every chance they get. The ones who will stand up and say there's more to animé fandom that pictures, papers, and e-cards. Those guys and gals have much of my respect for doing what they do, knowing that Adam's turning a deaf ear to their complaints. They are truly the brave souls here. If I could have done everyone's suggestions I would have. There were so many good ones to choose from. I did print out those suggestions, so I'll probably look over the ones that didn't make this cut for a future round of woodburn projects when I have the time and money to invest in more wood to work on. Actually, one of yours came pretty close to being picked this time around. It was a tough choice for all three of the character pieces I did. There were a few others that caught my eye, so I'd like to do them in the future at some point, and I think at least one of yours is high on that list. KayuraWolfwood Thanks for the feedback, and for the record, I burned my fingers at least three times, put a black mark on the table I was using, and almost set my pants on fire twice during the burning stage of just those three pieces. The end results are worth the pain though. GIDRA: Nice to see you again. No that notice just went up recently, and hopefully it'll be obsolete too soon to really become a fixture of my site. It's just a precautionary step I'm taking to make sure that certain abuses of the system aren't committed against me again. Everyone has their own opinion on the PM posting thing, and for 90% of the PM traffic I get, it will remain private. I'm just taking a stance on posting messages from people who see how I do things here, and don't want to face the scrutiny of my peers by being public in the expression of their opinions on what I say here. The image behind the notice is actually my first attempt at tattoo lineart. The guy who's doing the tattoo was concerned about some of the detail getting lost so I'm reworking it to fix that. The feedback is appreciated, thanks. Yeah, I'm hearing more and more conflicting stuff about that update and how (in)compatible most current themes and/or user coding are going to be, so I'm waiting to see what I have to work with in terms of backroom provisions, and what I can expand beyond that, then I'll finalize my new theme and try to get it up. Hopefully, I'll still be able to use the CSS I've got for my blog, most of that's just formatting, but we'll know when the time comes right? You take care as well. BASH: Thank you for the feedback, it's very much appreciated. When the others are done, they'll be up here as soon as possible in one way or another. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of mixed messages on the upgrade's handling of the current user coding, so I'm holding off on that. I'll rework my SoBe Team Lizard theme (the current one) into the new set-up once I know what's what with it, and I'll use it for the summer, but I'll keep the subject of my next theme a secret for now. I'm not sure how many of you will know much about the subject, but we'll have to see when the time comes for the unveiling. I'm still looking for a publisher, or an agent. I think if I fail to meet my deadline for having either one (early next year sometime), I may have to overhaul the manuscript to try to make it more appealing to publishers, even though no ones' telling me jack about how to improve the story, just that "it's not right for us at this time". Either that, or [Censored] doing it the right way and go self-publishing which would make the book cost more and harder to acquire. Iruka Sensei: Nice to see you back here. I've been trying to get around to sites more than I have been. And I think I'm succeeding for the most part. Thanks for the feedback on the art, I do appreciate all comments on them, and my PM policy, well hopefully it'll be obsolete before I have to use it. Magnus Lensherr: Thank you for the feedback. Hopfully you'll like yours which will be up as soon as I get it done, hopefully this week. Well, I'm still kind of all over the place with setting a definite posting day. It'll vary from week to week till I eventually just sit down and decide "this day of the week" is when I'll post. Actually Friday might be a good day cause it'll cover both the week and the weekend effectively. I may end up going to a two post a week scenario too, there's a couple options milling in my head. If I can do a lot of the things with Version Vibrant as I can do now, it should be all right. When I know what I can do theme-wise, I'll be able to finish up the theme and get it going. Right now it's just a waiting game to know what Version Vibrant will have to offer configuration -wise. What happened to me a very short thing at the beginning of November, it wasn't and isn't an ongoing thing. The user block feature that's coming with Version Vibrant will effectively end the need for my policy on that type of message, so I'll be glad for it. With luck, I won't have to use my policy before then. Thank you and same here. Mamma Vash: Thank you for the feedback on the woodburns. I'm all right and trying to take care of all those art projects I'm not close to a year overdue on (yikes!). The surfing lizard is cool, all of the SoBe Lizards are cool, that's why they're up here. I seem to be continuing to break everything I touch-- this is very strange. Any suggestions? Pardon the crudely insensitive humor at your expense, no offense is meant, but how about wearing gloves? Animé Dreams!

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Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Updates and Commemoratives

Update: Commemorative Woodburn Projects Piece Details Fighting Spirit In All Of Us Hosted By theOtaku.com. Title Fighting Spirit in All of Us Character/Source Ichigo Kurosaki / Bleach Inspired by twilight samurai Status DELIVERED Where We Came From Hosted By theOtaku.com. Title Where We Came From Character/Source Pikachu / Pokémon Inspired by beyblader Status Ready To Ship Facing Pain Hosted By theOtaku.com. Title Facing Pain Character/Source Hokuto / B'T X Inspired by Shireishou Status Ready to Ship As you can see, I've made some progress on the woodburns. Three of them are completed, I just have two more to go right now. Been doing some thinking on the update thing, I'll probably post either Tuesday or Wednesday, middle of weekish to get the wider coverage of people updating their own blogs. I'm trying to get around to sites, and I have been kind of lurking without commenting on some of them, but I'll make a more concerted effort to actually comment if I can. Not a whole lot else going on at the moment, I've got a new theme in the works (SoBe lizards are cool so I'll probably them as my summer theme and Next year I'll have at least one more picture in the line-up). I'm holding off on putting it up till this major site update goes into effect inthe next who knows when. I don't want to have a nice theme in the works to find out I can't use some of the elements I spent my time on making. After Version Vibrant gets going, I'll know what i have to work with and try to adapt my elements to fit. Comments japanese kitten: It's not all of them yet, but it's a start. The others will be added to the table when they're completed. JD Person That's a well put way of saying it. I'm sorry it took me almost a month to figure that out myself. The greatest victory one can have against those who would try to be oppressive, is to stand up and face them head on. Resistance is the largest obstacle that impedes their path. Magnus Lensherr: That is a policy decision I had to make. I've always done my best to promote open and honest discussion on my blog here, that's why I answer publically posted comments publically, so that my views are open to everyone to read and discuss should they feel it appropriate. I can assure you, the first time it happens that I have to post a private message, someone's not going to be too happy about it, but this is my firm stance on the matter. I want people to read and discuss my blogs and have their own opinions, they have the right to their own opinion. They, however, do not have the right to have their opinion shielded from the scrutiny of my peers should they fear being criticized for their views, or the manner in which they present them to me. If a user has something to say to me about what I say publically, they should be prepared to speak their opinion publically as well. Yeah, I'm back, and I'll probably be posting on the week like I was before (though I'm thinking about trying out a different day than Saturday), I just don't have a lot going on to post about any more frequently than that right now. I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to posting relevant private messages. I'll be honest, there will be some satisfaction in putting the words of someone trying to play me in private out into public view. I just hope that anyone wanting my attention for discussion of a disagreement will be motivated to keep their public sentiments public, so that not only I, but they, are protected from fallacies that can be perpetuated from having things said in private. You know, it'll feel good to be back here. timechaser: I had no intention of letting the situation chase me away from here indefinately, I just needed time to figure some things out and regroup my spirits. I still will not give out the details of my situation publically. Even though I am taking the keep all important things public stance, I will in no way deliberately bait those unsavory characters into renewed aggression in my direction. I expect them to come at me for other infractions I commit against their poorly defined moral senses, or for just for telling the truth in a way they're too tunnel-visioned to see the full scope of clearly. Love the mythbusters crash test dummy avatar, it's amusing. That's one of my favorite non-anime shows on these days, and one of few "reality" programs I can watch. Hop-Frog: As the line goes: "I'm Baaaa-aaaaack". If I remember right, that's from a horror film or something like that. Anyway, it fits the mood. I'm old-school on that front, I prefer a big stick *hefts full size redwood tree baseball bat* to LASERs and blasters. Even dragons find themselves wounded in battle and need to seek quiet healing away from their opponents. I have healed, and now I am back to fight longer and harder than before, and this time, I won't let myself get wounded so easily. I've been lurking a lot lately too, I'm finding it hard to comment on sites and stuff where people talk of things I'm not familiar with. I don't wnat to post one-liners just to say I posted, I like to be coherent and relevant with my comments on topics people post about. They take the time to write up a blog post for something important to them, so I shouldn't take up comment space if I can't speak from experience or wisdom on the topic they're passionate enough to post about. I'm glad to be back, I feel things are right with me again. I got the ones I'vefinished up there for you to look at, the others are on the way. It's been cold here lately, especially at night (27°F one night recently). Wool socks are good for the cold, and hiking. I've got a pair of those I'll have on at night so my feet don't freeze. Yensid: Yeah, I'm back in action. Hm, I suppose the nature of a "private" message is to be just that. I however don't see it exactly that way for all situations. It's far too easy for someone to use "private" messages to further their own agenda or quite simply to harass users knowing there will be no scrutiny of their words, that no one will be able to hold them to their views, and that cannot be allowed. That is a carte blanche I'm not willing to concede to the types of people who would take advantage of such shadows to hurt or intimidate others while trying to keep their own public image intact. Is it likely that making a public matter out of private messages will incite a conflict? I have no doubts that in some cases that will happen, but no one can say they weren't warned, that's why the notice is in red text up ther at the top of my page. There's no way around that potential for conflict, no matter what choice is made. If someone would perpetuate a conflict for that reason, for what they said in private about a hot-button issue being made public, it's highly possible that they would perpetuate the conflict whether or not it was in public eyes. How do I know this? How can I be so sure? Well, I used to be that kind of person myself, I used to go out of my way to make trouble for others and play head games with them when they said something I didn't agree with. I know the personality type more intimately than I care to admit, so I know how to handle that type effectively, and trust me, this is it. Being the son of a minister, I can certainly relate to religious differences of opinion first hand. That's why generally, I don't talk religion because there are too many variables involved. I do however bring up one piece of Scripture particularly tailored to the overzealous would-be preachers. Don't get used to me quoting Scripture, it's not going to happen often, but I believe "Judge not lest ye be judged." is a justifications stopper if ever I heard one. I was taught that God wants me to respect others, whether or not they believe what I do, I was taught not to cast judgement on other people (I do fail at that, often), and I was taught that it is not appropriate to force the Word of God upon someone who does not want to hear it, or honors it in other ways. Lost souls who are open to the Word are different, but I won't get into that here since it's not really relevant. Your encounter in that instance tells me I'm in the right for taking this approach. It will either completely disarm the attacker and I'll be left alone, or it'll convince such a person to be civil with me in public discussion of our differences, which is fine by me. Being able to hold a public discussion in a polite manner, that's really a conerstone of civilized society. I'll actively converse with people who don't agree with me so long as they are tactful and polite, and they can expect the same of me in return. I know what you mean. There are a few things left over from my situation that I, unfortunately, can't really talk about without tipping my hand to those still involved. There will be incidents like that which come up once in a while, and we each have to choose our own way of handling them the way we best can. My choice is going to be to keep everything I can in the public eye so that one-sided views of the situation can't be developed by anyone looking on, or anyone who gets involved. Yeah, it's getting chilly here, got down to 27°F the other night, time to get out the electric blankets or this dragon will turn into an ice cube. AngelBest Dream: Tests are always tiring. Some more so than others I would imagine. Take your time with the messages, do a couple at a stretch, then take a break, do a few more, and so on till they're done. Trying to tackle so many messages at once can be exhausting, and from the sound of things, you are already. I like that material, I'll have to be inspired to create my own message tagline from it. Don't push yourself too hard okay, get some rest when you can. Animé Dreams!

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Saturday, December 1, 2007

Claiming My Territory

For certain people, you know who you are, I'm not nearly so easy to silence as you would like me to be. I've given the whole thing a lot of thought and well, I made a decision. Not once in my life have I been such a coward that I would run away. I've always stood my ground and spoke my mind regardless of what others might say or do to me in the process. This little game here shouldn't have been any different, and it will not be any different in the future. Consider this notice that I will not back down again, I will not hide, and I will not let anyone bully me into silence or submission. This dragon's defiant roar will be heard echoing off the distant mountains, through the bottoms of the deepest seas, and higher in the skies than eagles and dragons soar in response to any future challenges that are thrust upon me. All you have to do is remember two things: 1) I know who you are, and 2) I don't make threats, I make promises. The enigma that is the dragon has returned. I have given a lot of thought to the situation, and I decided not to let a rag-tag little collection of losers inhibit me from doing something I enjoy doing. Sharing who I am with good, understanding people. I chose not to let what happened over the past few months to get at me. I can still be my open, honest self if I really try, and show no fear to those who would attempt to attack me for being who I am. Fear isn't worth it, so I'm back, and I'm ready to go at this thing again with the same level of quality and commitment that I had before. I will point out my new header, the important message that should be read by all my readers. Scroll back up and read it if you skipped over it already. What I have chosen to do is to make public all attempts by unsavory individuals to manipulate, harass, intimidate, or otherwise impede myself and/or my posting here. I will be posting content, and answers to comments publically, so any concerns or statements dealing with what I have posted in public will also be kept in the public eye so that the scrutiny of peers can keep all parties honest. Expect to see the wood burn pieces, at lteas threee of the show up todat or tomorrow. I will try to have what I do have finished up pefore tomorrow. Comments Everyone, I thank you for your support through this ordeal, you have been a big help in more ways than you know. I will return to answering comments in my next post. You have all been much more valuable to me thsi past month than I can really express. Thank you again. Animé Dreams!

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Posting a week late, apologies for the delay. Update: Commemorative Woodburn Projects Character Source Inspired By Project Status Ichigo Kurosaki Bleach twilight samurai DELIVERED Pikachu Pokémon beyblader RTS: November 30, 2007 Hokuto B'T X Shireishou RTS: November 30, 2007 Lizardman Original Design Magnus Lensherr Delayed New Projection: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Bonus Piece Undisclosed Myself Undisclosed Status Messages Information Message/Code: Explanation: Projected Date project expected to be done. Delayed Project unable to be completed by projected date. New Projection Revised Projection Date. RTS Ready To Ship (The project is completely finished). DELIVERED Project arrival at destination confirmed

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

I've added a weather info module to my page (yes, it ID's the town I live in). Because the weather is a critical factor in the final stages of the wood burn projects (ie allowing the polyurethane clear-coat to dry properly), I felt it necessary to have provide that information. As I understand it, the module is real-time and should update on it's own, but it gives you an idea what's going on with that. Update: Commemorative Woodburn Projects Character Source Inspired By Project Status Ichigo Kurosaki Bleach twilight samurai RTS: Monday November 19, 2007 Pikachu Pokémon beyblader Delayed New Projection: Thursday, November 22, 2007 Hokuto B'T X Shireishou Projected: Thursday, November 22, 2007 Lizardman Original Design Magnus Lensherr Projected: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 Bonus Piece Undisclosed Myself Undisclosed Status Messages Information Message/Code: Explanation: Projected Date project expected to be done. Delayed Project unable to be completed by projected date. New Projection Revised Projection Date. RTS Ready To Ship (The project is completely finished).

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