My laptop's XP install owned its self tonight.

I couldn't backup everything, but I got the important stuff.

I freaking hate WinXP.

UPDATE! Thanks to the power of LINUX I have restored laptop to 85% normal operating level. Unfortunately still using winXP.

MORE UPDATES!

I'm back, and unwired with WIFI at the house! w00t! Now I can surf with the laptop anywhere around the house, so I setup my mobile LAN table in my room where it's nice and quiet to do some 3d stuff this week.

And I replaced MSoffice with openoffice.org. That's for screwing with win2k by making XP, you creeps!

Machinima is one of those nasty little buzz words that nobody quite gets without a hefty explination. Sometimes people will sit a bit for it, sometimes they shrug and walk away. I’ve had close friends who watch us make magic and still not get it, wondering why we just don’t use 3Dmax. Sometimes I have to ask that too...


Look, first things first, we’re artist, then we’re storytellers, then we’re activist. When working on a project, any project, we’ll layout the main ideas and then brush all that paper work for later, so that we can focus on the art direction. The art is our number one focus, 90% of our project ideas all focus on breaking the visual mold. How can we take Machinima to the next level, go beyond the borders of acceptable and produce the exceptional. If you ever wonder why there’s such a long time between our releases, well, this is it. We’ve worked on so many movies that were scrapped for looking “not quite right.” Another thing to realize is after Fake Science we decided that we could no longer accept using even a pixel of someone else’s art. Too much chaos and legal gray line involved, It’s bad enough we’re using unlicensed technology to make these things. We made Fake Science without realizing the consequences of even moderate critical success, and the lessons we learned almost drove us from Machinima completely.

The first glaring lesson was that the press is capable of much evil, and we’re real glad they’ve been so damn nice to us, we should continue to not piss them off. Second lesson, ELUA’s suck, we knew going in that we wouldn’t truly have any rights to our film, but had we known then what type of opportunities Fake Science would open up, we would have used something a bit more, open source. It’s really hard on your creative spirit, when no matter how much work and dedication you put into it, that someone else can swipe it away in court with the wave of an ELUA. Fake Science will forever be our bastard child, both loved for opening the eyes of the world to us, and hated for being limited not on an artistic level, but on a legal one. For all intents and purposes any Machinima we make with an off the shelf game, can never truly be ours. We cannot accept this, and we should not accept this. So what are our choices? One, we can somehow budget a few hundred thousand dollars on licenses. Two, we can make it with their tools anyway and give them the bird while selling DVD copies to our adoring fans. Three, not use Machinima at all, and stick with traditional animation packages. And four use open source, somehow.

On the threshold of Space Man Biff we find our selves at a possible impasse, where we once again must make a hauntingly difficult choice. We played it smart this round, and everything is being made as assets that we can easily port to any game, or render straight up for possibly more pleasing results. First instinct is to utilize HL2, a bit crisper output than the trusty Unreal engine, but limited in oh so familiar ways that make me cringe. Chances are, that when we release SMB, we just won’t say what tech we used, and sell the hell out of it as only true rebels can. The EULA resistance is born!

About 2 years ago or so I was listening to the Radio in the van (driving back from the movies, where they succeded in pissing me off by playing TV comercials before the trailers,) constantly switching stations during those pesky commercial breaks, hoping to find a station still playing music. I went nearly 10 minutes cycling through the stations to find a song. I pulled into my driveway right as a good song finally came on.

So I go inside, and I’m thinking, “hey I should see what’s on the news!” So I surf over to CNN… commercial break… So then I flip up to CNN Headline News… Just missed it. So, jump to FOX News… “Don’t turn that dial,” the man says before fading to a tampon ad… TXCN (Texas news,) more shameless self promotion, all filler with no killer.

At this point, I’m just standing there with the remote clenching it tighter and tighter, and flip to the god save of my childhood, the Cartoon Network, just in time to see… an ad. In the end only HBO Family was playing something non-suggestive.

So, frustrated and a little miffed at getting stiffed, I turn on my trusty IE explorer to surf some web and… Well you know.

At this point I just turned it all off. Only the PC ever came back on, and she’s filtered to hell now for it too. Firefox with 5 different ad killers, thunderbird mail with a now super smart junk filter, and a seriously selective selection of video and audio entertainment downloaded and playable at MY convenience, and ad free, damnit!

Moral of the story? Read a book, learn a craft, play some dodgeball, enjoy your red drink, and toss those damn zombie boxes in the trash.


Thank you and good night.


*Pasted from The Wastes forums, where I came up with the rant this morning.

I have done the unthinkable, I have joined a mod team! The Wastes: SourceIt's an update to the classic The Wastes mod for HL1, where you beat the living hell out of people with cool weapons in a mad-max like post war environment.

I am one of their 3D modeling guys; I'll be doing some weapons and various world props, so be sure to check it out!

It's that time again!

Dead on Que is working quietly behind the scenes on our next big hit, Space Man Biff! Details need to stay on the down low, but I can say this much: It's Sci-Fi, it's got some robots, and it's going to be freaking awesome!

I'm heading up character animations (Not something I'm great at, but I really love it, so I fought for it!) and modeling one of the main characters. The team is split on environments, and I get to bring it all together in the end, like I did for Fake Science.

I'm putting the SummerTech films in the mailbox today after way too much delay, and I'll be bringing them online to summertech.deadonque.com as soon as I can be at my desktop for more than 5 minutes. (Laptop is getting toasted this afternoon while I wait on my ride; I really tore the hell out of it this summer.)

In other news the Contour is parked in the yard with a for sale sign, I had a kid out yesterday who was real interested, he's big on quarter racing street cars and if he calls back I think he'll really buy it, I mean it is an SVT after all. If you get it PMC'd it be one of the flyest cars around, no lie. (Can white kids still say flyest?!)


We got Dungeon Siege 2 last Saturday and me and my bro went over a friends apartment with junk food, Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, and pizza and we played co-op all night. *tear* Good times!

Otherwise, I'm at work all...day...long... I've been stuck here every evening without a car for nearly a month now, at least until I can sell mine and buy a new one. By the time I get home, it's eat, swim, and then sleep.

With just enough time to finish book 6 Harry Potter. (Finished it last Thursday)