Postmythos

Webcomics, Part 2

2011-06-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

Nic Buxom by Nic
Autobiographical comic by a professional dominatrix. Interesting subject presented in a cute way.

The Non-Adventures of Wonderella by Justin Pierce
Wonder Woman as a lazy, selfish alcoholic. Once a week, usually parodies whichever superhero movie just came out.

NSFW: Oglaf by Trudy Cooper
Fantasy + sex = hilarity. The main plot concerns an extremely unlucky apprentice to a sorceress. Some jokes do require knowledge of Celtic folklore or Oscar Wilde to understand.

Our Valued Customers by MRTIM
Strange things said by real people in a comic book store, illustrated. Distinctive art and, being based in reality, always surprising.

Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland
Jeffrey Rowland runs Topatoco and supplies the image for necrosis. This is, very loosely speaking, his journal comic. Often features other artists from this list as characters.

Penny Arcade by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
This one is obvious. It's been running for over a decade, defined the gaming webcomic as a subgenre, spawned conventions, a charity, a game series, an online reality show, and potentially a feature film.

The Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholas Gurewitch
This has been on hiatus since 2008. The general rule of comics is the fewer words, the better. Gurewitch is the master of conveying meaning quickly through art alone, or a handful of words. His artistic range covers a variety of styles as well.

pictures for sad children by john campbell
imagine magical realism that's so depressing it loops around and becomes hilarious. this is like that.

Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
If you're reading this because you were in my circle of friends in high school, you already have favourite characters and ships you'd die to defend. For everyone else, very good slice of life comic with a large roster of characters, great art evolution and serious character beats amidst the hilarity. Also most of the characters are on Twitter.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weiner
Before you start reading this: the red circle below the comic has an extra panel. Nothing worse than being halfway through the archive before you realise that. Statistically the second funniest thing ever. In some cases the image will establish an expectation, the caption will subvert it, the second line of the caption changes the meaning again, and the extra panel again changes the meaning. Weiner has also written other comics on this list, and has a sketch comedy show.

Scenes From a Multiverse by Jonathan Rosenberg
Well drawn, very funny comic about life in an "ordinary, everyday multiverse". Each week readers vote for one scene to be continued the next week, so each week Rosenberg is trying to create more interesting characters and settings than the last.

NOT SAFE FOR WORK. SERIOUSLY, THIS IS "THE ARISTOCRATS" TERRITORY HERE: Sexy Losers by Clay
One of those cases where the content warning tells you everything you need to know.

Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida
Another long runner. The allegory can get a bit dense at times, but the art is great, especially the extra long, colour Sunday strips. Slick is my id.

Snowflakes by James Ashby, Chris Jones and Zach Weiner
More kid friendly than most of this list. Seven kids in an orphanage have adventures. One believes Jesus was a Viking, and has memorised the pressure points of a kraken.

Three Panel Soul by Matthew Boyd and Ian McConville
Autobiographical comic following on from Mac Hall, which I admittedly never read. Brilliant art in a variety of styles.

Tree Lobsters by Steve D
Conversations between arboreal lobsters, usually about skepticism or science fiction.

Wigu by Jeffrey Rowland
I've only read the more recent stories, but this has a thousand page archive. At this point, it's a kid having adventures involving a surreal alternate dimension. Since the author also writes Overcompensating and manages merchandise for most of the comics on this list, it's not updated often.

Wondermark by David Malki !
Webcomic made from photoshopped 19th century illustrations. Features ironic shirts, aliens and the majestic piranhamoose.

xkcd by Randall Munroe
You knew this was going to be here. Second or third webcomic I started reading in high school, took the zeitgeist by storm, Munroe as voice of a geek generation, inevitable backlash, equilibrium, etc.

v0.1

2011-05-15T06:49:00.000-07:00

They say all innovation starts with boredom. Jimmy, I said to myself, there’s no shortage of that now.

I found myself deeper than I’d ever been, deeper than any reasonable person would go.

I turned on the lights.

Took a moment to adjust, but things were, well they were better than expected.

Not wanting to go mad down here, I set a day/night cycle. That’s something accomplished, then.

I got the renovation systems running, and set up the command centre far above the testing floor. Something else to cross off the list.

The bottom levels were flooded. A diagnostic had already found the leak, but it was too big to deal with yet. I had that area sealed off and the rest drained.

I opened the Central catalogue and went a little nuts.

I ordered seeds and embryos of just about everything fully documented. If they complained, I’d just tell them I was testing field conditions.

The local backup generator looked like it could light up the whole space, so I set that under the command centre. I also put an old star map on the ceiling, cause why not? Keep everything naturalistic, you don’t discover any new forms of madness.

Maybe I’ll change things up later.

It was time to start testing, so I ordered a couple of humans from Central.

And this is where things started to go wrong for poor Jimmy.

Webcomics, Part 1

2011-05-08T04:03:00.000-07:00

I read a lot of webcomics. Allow me to enumerate, with some notes beforehand. First, allow me to recommend Archive Binge, which allows you to read the available comics at the rate you choose, daily, two on Thursdays and Saturdays, whatever.

Secondly, I used to read Control Alt Delete. It was the second or third webcomic I started reading, so grandfather clauses applied for a while. Then I started reading criticism and seeing the deficiencies, but I was still invested in the characters. So I was momentarily glad at the prospect of a more serious character focused arc, but you probably know which one I'm talking about. After that, I read it asking myself questions like, "did Buckley manage to get the punchline in the right panel today?" This went on for a long time before I gave up completely.

On to what I currently read or have finished, in alphabetical order. Drink when you see a Canadian.

A Softer World by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne
Joke a day strip with surreal jokes over beautiful photography.

Axe Cop by Malachai and Ethan Nicolle
If you aren't reading Axe Cop, do so now. It's the imagination of a six year old illustrated by his thirty year old brother. There is a ghost dragon tyrannosaurus. Abraham Lincoln blows people up. Unicorn horns grant wishes.

Bug by Adam Huber
Four jokes united by a common theme each weekday.

Cyanide and Happiness by Rob DenBleyker, Dave McElfatrick, Matt Melvin and Kris Wilson
Joke a day, done by four different guys, all with stick figures, respects no boundaries. You've probably heard of this one.

Captain Stupendous by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones
Single story, now a graphic novel (name was changed from Excelsior to Stupendous for legal reasons). A superhero's ex-wife is getting remarried. From there it gets very strange. Features the most interesting take on superhero disguises I've seen.

Concerned by Chris Livingston
A bumbling idiot precedes the events of Half-Life 2, done entirely in Garry's Mod. Livingston also ran Not My Desk, 1fort, Living in Oblivion, First Person Shouter, First Person Observer (read the comments section), and now runs Screen Cuisine.

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North
Comic that uses the same art every day. Survives on the writing of computational linguist Ryan North. Three dinosaurs discuss any and all topics. Has been running since 2003. I use Archive Binge for the old ones as well since continuity is pretty weak.

Dr McNinja by Chris Hastings, coloured by Anthony Clark
This is about a doctor who is also a ninja. There are also raptor bandits, and Dracula has a moonbase. Yes, there is an Axe Cop crossover. You can start at the beginning, or with the first coloured comic.

Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz
Science fiction comic that started as just one off jokes. Now each page takes months to complete and there is a recurring cast and arcs. There are problems with the storytelling and there is no schedule to speak of, but it always looks amazing.

Eight-Bit Theater by Brian Clevinger
Sprite comic based on Final Fantasy I, which I haven't played. Completed, I'm reading using Archive Binge.

Fleep by Jason Shiga
I've also read Bookhunter by Shiga, but I need to read more. Fleep is the story of I man trapped in a phone booth after a building collapses around it. Then he realises he doesn't speak the local language of wherever he is.

Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield.
No not the musician Warren Ellis, but the guy who wrote Transmetropolitan, which I still need to read. Freakangels is about twelve psychics with a hive mind (yes, you should be thinking of the Midwich Cuckoos) who accidentally destroyed civilisation and are now trying to fix things. It's almost finished at time of writing.

Garfield Minus Garfield by Dan Walsh
Exactly what it sounds like. Turns out Jon is crazy.

NSFW: Ghastly's Ghastly Comic by Chris Cracknell
Very, very NSFW strip that showed what would happen if hentai tropes, particularly tentacle monsters, happened in the real world.

Girl Genius by Phil & Kaja Foglio
Firstly, it's not steampunk, it's gaslamp fantasy, apparently. What if Victorian Europe was controlled by mad scientists? Reading this with Archive Binge.

Girls With Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto
Nice slice of life comic. Not on Archive Binge, so I haven't read the whole archives (what is this, the dark ages?).

Great Showdowns by Scott C.
Cute art depicting famous film conflicts.

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
History and literature comics. Good art, very funny.

Indexed by Jessica Hagy
Graph jokes.

Irregular Webcomic and associated projects by David Morgan-Mar et al.
Irregular Webcomic is one of the longest and most regularly updated comics out there. It's also one of the few made by an Australian. There are multiple plot threads involving pirates fantasy adventurers, Shakespeare, Steve Irwin and the Mythbusters. The main draw for me is the scientific annotations, particularly this one. The site also hosts other projects. Darths and Droids is a Star Wars version of DM of the Rings and codified the tropes of that particular subgenre. Mezzacotta is the longest webcomic in existence. Lightning Made of Owls allows anyone to submit a comic using a predefined set of characters. Square Root of Minus Garfield is endless Garfield remixes. Comments on a Postcard may have some database issues, but the art is always experimental and the annotations very helpful.

Magpie Luck by Katie Sekelsky
Time travel adventures.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things by Kelly Turnbull
Video game action heroes try to cope with normal life. Came close to being picked up by The Escapist. This arc has gone viral in Pokemon circles.

Plenty more to come.

Short Story: Geometric

2011-01-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

My car came to a stop outside the park, and I erased the line of action from the nav square. I’m cautious like that.

The body was near a stand of trees. Beth was already there.

“Do we know who it is?” I asked.

“One Nathan Ogilvy, Research and Development for General Chalk.”

“Cause of death?”

“See for yourself.”

It wasn’t pretty. I could hardly see his eyes for the blood. There was more around the mouth. No other visible wounds.

“Scene secured?”

“Violence search found nothing past the victim’s face and hands. They’re breaking the spell down, blooding it. Some of the victim’s blood already collected for a search.”

Both checks failed. Violence got a bird eating a worm. None of the victims blood was anywhere but his body, at least from the past 24 hours. No marks of the victim or underneath.

Beth just stared at the body. “He did this to himself.”

There was a call from the trees. One of the officers had found what looked like a marked tree. Then we found another. And another.

“From the right angle on the path, it could be a complete seal,” Beth said.

“The hex connectors are right, but what would the trigger be?”

Beth stopped and stared at me. “It’s mental. Reading the seal triggers the effect in the brain, where there’s too much interference for us to detect it.”

“I’ve only seen maybe five mental seals in my life, never anything more complicated than euphoria or something. This was perfectly broken up, too.”

We walked back to the path. The top of the seal was obscured by shadow.

“Dawn. It could only be seen around dawn.” Beth said.

“Especially since one of the symbols is gone.“ I said. The seal was incomplete, missing the highest portion.

“Complex construction, precisely timed, single ring, with a symbol that probably doesn’t exist officially.” Beth summarised. “Now what?”

“I think it’s time to talk to someone from General Chalk.”

In Which Introspection Is Attempted

2010-06-13T23:09:00.000-07:00

I don't consider myself a nice guy.

I consider myself an amoral bastard who emotionally manipulates people to breaking point without raising his voice. Still, Lore Sjoberg's article on nice guys struck close to home. So I might as well go through it point-by-point.

Conflating "nice" with "devoid of sexual energy"

If by "devoid of sexual energy" you mean cleavage-induced Stendhal syndrom e (in fairness, it's twitching, not hallucinations).

Resenting anyone who does actual flirting

I'm not actually around people flirting that often, so all I have to say is this: if whenever the girl you're dancing with turns her back, you tell me she's a mole and you're only there in an effort to get your dick sucked, you are a jerkface, in my opinion. Keep it to yourself, at the very least.

"What women want"

I long ago realised that it's not that I don't understand women, I just don't understand people. Mammals. Lifeforms. Whatever.

Having crushes on friends for three years

Continually improving here, but never been as bad as three years. Tends to be about one. As an aside, between high school and uni I managed to get over every woman I'd ever been interested in. Didn't last, but the effort was there.

Not knowing many women

Yes, next point.

Assuming women are interchangeably broken

Again, I assume people are horribly damaged under the surface, I'm just more interested in the specifics with women. Yes, I have a history of going after some messed up women, some of which I probably treated like Manic Pixie Dream Girls, and I didn't get as far with any of them as with the seemingly happy girls I meet once and never again. So empirically, I should be approaching 'happy' people, but I still don't see it working out well.

Chivalry

Hell yeah. I've never actually said 'prithee' in conversation, but now I kind of want to. I'm the kind of guy who will hold a door open for 20 women in row. And I've got the warrior poet credentials to back it up (black belt/published poet, if you got here by a wrong turn at Albuquerque). At this point though, it's more of a compulsion than a conscious attempt to impress.

Switching between laser focus and obliviousness

On the one hand, I don't get a lot of social interaction as is, but yeah, I listen to people's problems if they bring them up, and I share cool links with people a lot. In fact at the moment I have no regular interaction with available women. Huh. On the other hand, I honestly enjoy listening to women. I would rather spend time listening to a woman talk about her work or her hobbies than dance with her. How did dancing become society's single courtship metric anyway?

Confidence

I was getting better at this. I was being invited to lunch by beautiful women.

Then, as often happens, an assumption of reciprocity collapsed, there was fallout, my personal growth took several steps back.

I've beaten two periods of chronic depression, anxiety, and stress. Tranquil acceptance I can manage. Like the fact that no being has ever found me attractive.

Confidence is still a way off though.

The kicker is, even my bad side is an omnicidal maniac with no attractive qualities.

So what's step one? Work out what's been a constant trend, and what is the result of specific incident. Or keep pretending i'm tragically misunderstood. Either one.

Copyright Infringement Ideas

2009-08-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Firstly, it's unlikely that anyone is surprised by the lack of updates. This blog is rapidly becoming a way to take my well-honed procrastination skills to the next level. I once spent six months that should have been for designing a pillow case drawing fractals. But it's time for another burst of ideas that have been ruminating for weeks, typed out in the middle of the night. This time: Ways to reduce income loss due to torrents that probably only work inside my head.

First: A zeitgeist counterattack. This is an issue decided best by what is considered normal in the mind of the public. My idea: What if the bulk of Christmas/birthday/other gift-giving holiday gifts were legally purchased versions of something the person had already torrented? Lower chance of unwanted gifts, lower chance of gifts that seem good turning out terrible, higher sales, except to people that wouldn't have bought it anyway.

Second: Nobody has infinite bandwidth. Every byte that constitutes a legal download is one that doesn't cut into profits. Idea: Make available in an official torrent form properties that are out of copyright. Show a Charlie Chaplin on a Friday night, giving the URL post-credits. Maybe even give rewards for using legal torrents?

That's about all for now. I can't promise anything about future updates. Maybe a short story. Maybe an infodump on me. Maybe I'll just try to be more active on Twitter.

Maybe I'll actually get a life?

No. Definitely not that one.

Holiday Post 1: The Last Airbender

2009-06-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

As anyone who follows my Twitter should know, I've now finished my first university semester. Unfortunately, I also have a case of viral pharyngitis keeping me up at night. I'm a couple of days away from being completely nocturnal, so I thought some blogging was called for. Since Penny Arcade have brought it back into the limelight, I thought I would give my opinion on the hype and controversy around M. Night Shyamalan's Avatar adaptation, The Last Airbender.

For the last two years at my high school, Avatar was huge in my social group. I probably know more Zuko fangirls than Harry Potter fangirls (Edward Cullen fangirls are why I wear my tinfoil hat). I, of course, was late to the party, but caught up quickly.Great writing, great characterisation, great martial arts, etc. Oh, and obligatory C. S. Lewis: "When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

I must point out that I haven't actually seen any of Shyamalan's films, so I'll be going off observed mass opinion and Moviebob's analysis. All complaints towards his more recent movies are plot related, e.g. overused devices, ridiculous set pieces and gargantuan ego. If he has worked closely with DiMartino and Konietzko this shouldn't be a problem. The main problem could be in establishing over a dozen minor characters who help out later on.

Based on the teaser released: music is good, effects are good. That's pretty much all we know.

Now for the big, now-irrelevant point: casting, and race. The four nations roughly map to Tibet, Inuit tribes, peaceful eras of China, and a hybrid of the most warmongering periods of China and Japan. This is pretty concrete, and a lot of research went into making the show realistic in this regard.

The main issue is whether Aang, the protagonist, is white. Culturally, he's a Tibetan Buddhist monk. However, some episodes (The Deserter, Avatar and the Firelord, I'm looking at you) don't quite get that across. Aesthetically, it's more complicated. Short answer: his race is 'anime'. Long answer: His race is DiMartino and Konietzko copying Miyazaki copying thirty years of Japanese art copying Astro Boy copying Bambi. I know, there's probably mountains of errors in that sentence.

I don't actually dispute any of the casting decisions as they stand, but just think about if Caucasians had been playing the villains instead. You know, the small country with superior technology 'spreading its good fortune' through imperialist colonialism. Leave it at that if you want to be subtle or insert attacks on modern politics to your heart's content.

The main benefit in this gedankenexperiment would be casting: you could get original voice actors like Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) and Mark Hamill (if you don't know, stop reading). Of course, my favourite character was always Iroh, originally voiced by the departed Mako, who you do not mess with. Being the only character in the show with an accent, you could really cast anyone. So I thought to myself: incredibly cool old guy, smart, funny, deadly fighter. First thought was Sean Connery, but he's retired. Second thought was Bruce Willis, and I stand by that as an indicator of a perfect world.

So we have Yinsen, Senior Fire Navy Correspondent, Agent from Die Hard 4, and guy from Skins because I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire yet. No complaints, but you can't top Bruce Willis shooting fireballs and practicing Northern Shao Lin without bringing in ninjas, pirates, zombies, robots or mantis shrimps.

Storming the Wiki

2009-03-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

It's fair to say that the average person doesn't edit Wikipedia any more, if they ever did. It's been eight years, after all. So it always comes as a shock to find any large area of information missing, a section of culture that should have been meticulously covered but is instead ignored.

I also have a feeling that most people who used to edit Wikipedia can think of a few annoying episodes. I have two. Firstly, I was the guy who tried to save the Maghook article. It probably deserved to die, but I think I improved it massively before it was deleted. Secondly, George Gapon. The information about his exile is incorrect, based on a misreading of one of the sources. My correction was immediately reverted and the source is no longer available.

My idea is for anyone and everyone who thinks a certain segment of human experience is widespread and notable should pick a day to correct the flaw simultaneously. I don't mean individual articles, I mean entire fields.

I have two suggestions.

First, abridged series. This is the practice of making a shortened, fan-based parody of a (usually anime) series. The original and the best can be found at http://www.yugiohtheabridgedseries.com/
As referenced in an early episode "according to Wikipedia, we don't exist." This from someone who was taken off Youtube and currently has 485,384 channel views. To get some idea of how large and bizarre this genre can get look at this playlist. There is no shortage of videos of the original voice actors quoting the abridged series. Yet there exists not a single page on a series.

On a somewhat more serious note is my second suggestion: DMCAabuse. Given the cumulative nature of this network it should at least warrant its own page, if not one for each of its founding members.

The greatest surprise is that of of this channel's opponents is not 'notable': VenomFangX. I will provide no link. I will watch none of his videos. Suffice to say that he is the single most popular creationist on Youtube, and one of the most popular channels overall. Yet he is not notable. Everyone who sees this video should cheer, but in the public consciousness it never happened.

So a genre of internet humour and a slew of debunkers. Both deal quite often with censorship, so bonus points. If you have any further suggestions or any similar gripes, say so in the comments.

Burgeoning Media Empire

2009-03-07T23:23:00.000-08:00

I've been saying for a while that I would create an email for the blog, in case anyone ever read it. But now I have gone above and beyond:

There are now Gmail, Youtube and Twitter accounts for me and my blog. All are simply Postmythos. Nothing has actually been uploaded yet, it's more a matter of easy viewing for me.

Feel free to completely ignore this message.

R18+

2009-02-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

I'm in a book store, as I tend to be. Something shiny in the corner of my eye catches my attention. I tilt my head to the side, to discover once again that the book in question is American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, encased in shrink wrap, restricted to those 18 years and older. I take a step back, looking for anything else similarly restricted. Once again, I fail to see anything. If you can think of another novel sold in Australia with an R18+ rating, let me know in the comments.

The frequency with which I act out that story shows that at least one R-rated book has artistic merit. I don't think it's terribly disputed that an R18+ film can have artistic merit. The R-rated films I own are: A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, Mad Max (the first one, my favourite), Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. All great movies.

But something odd happens when you come to games.

There is no R18+ for games. If a 15 year old can't deal with what you present, you either self-censor, or you are banned from sale, courtesy of a government classification scheme. For reference, the average age of gamers in Australia is 28. The best case scenario is that the whole world has to deal with the same editing, as happened when Fallout 3 called morphine 'morphine'.

The root of the problem is the source of freedom of speech in Australia. It is not guaranteed, but rather implied by the vibe of the Constitution. Since every Australian citizen must vote, every Australian citizen must be informed, hence political speech is protected. That's it.

Public discussion of the subject has been repeatedly vetoed by South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson. Just discussion, let alone reform.

The given reason, needless to say, is that the people who would buy these games are unable to distinguish the violence and sex (but no other elements) featured in games (but no other media) from comparable situations in the real world.

The evidence so far would suggest that gaming can, to varying degrees, increase short-term frustration, irritability and, yes, aggression. But honestly, if that camper is frustrating you, he's not doing a very good job. Challenge and immersion in one activity leads to irritability in other endeavours. As a side note, I am intrigued by Roger Ebert's idea of games as sport rather than art, but I think a duality is more accurate.

Of course, I'm not denying that there will always be a mentally unbalanced few who act out atrocities 'inspired' by their favourite work of art.

The application of simple logic is one way around this. So far it hasn't worked so well. A second way would be a R18+ worthy game with undeniable artistic merit, on the order of Fight Club, Pulp Fiction or The Godfather. A third way would be game somehow worthy of the rating without relying on violence or sex. I don't know if that's even possible. Only with an R18+ film might graphic violence not even make the warning information, if overshadowed by other elements.

Of course censorship is increasing in all areas in Australia. The mandatory internet filter has been delayed (indefinitely I hope). Rule 34 is illegal (and I'm pretty sure the reason child pornography is illegal is supposed to be because it cannot be made legally). And the party the standing up to this kind of thing? The Australian Sex Party. Good grief.

Finally, why is fifteen the be-all and end-all of maturity? I already regret half the stuff I did when I was fifteen.

Academic update

2009-01-29T02:37:00.000-08:00

Enrolled in the Bachelor of Science Course at Sydney University today. It was my first preference, and the the most prestigious, based on the opinions of pretty much everyone I've ever met.

For those interested and with some understanding of the NSW system, my UAI was 84.35, with a band 6 (meriting a place in the newspapers) in Mathematics.

Will hopefully do some more blogging in future. Probably something on censorship (particularly the R18+ rating for games in Australia) and maybe some amateur debunking if something really annoys me.

Cyber Colonialism

2008-12-09T04:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a long held theory of mine that the history of cyberspace will be seen as analogous to the history of colonised continents like the Americas, Africa and Asia. First you have native tribes, independent startups carving out their own little niche.Then come the corporations like the Dutch East India Company or the Hudson Bay Company, Google or Microsoft.

The third step is colonisation. This is either happening really soon or right now, depending on where you are. Real world countries extending control over cyberspace the only way they know how: censorship.

The fourth phase is at the same time optimistic and outlandish: independence. It may take decades, but if the internet and the people who understand what it can do are oppressed long enough, something big will happen.

The disturbing part is that at the moment, the most fervent freedom fighters are Anonymous. I doubt the English language could yet describe that free state.

Pointless apologies

2008-12-09T04:46:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry that the address for contributions didn't come. I was busy finishing school, and that project just ran out of momentum. Some other things I'm thinking about doing right now, after I catch up on everything I've been planning to post here.

If you would like me to keep working on an urban fantasy in an entirely fictional universe, that's what comments are for.

As of writing this, however, I have no evidence that anyone has ever seen this blog. Hence the pointlessness.

Understanding Australia

2008-08-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

Here are three facts that say a lot about my country:

Our first prime minister was responsible for resolving the first international cricket riot.
We use the metric system, but you can still get a quarter pounder with cheese.
We have an unofficial national anthem (one of many) usually reserved for when the singer is drunk.

Sorry about the lack of updates.

God doesn't love you

2008-07-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

At least not the way you think.

If you accept the existence of a god, that implies a being who has witnessed the deaths of billions of loved ones. This could not be countenanced by any definition of love humanity has devised, therefore God does not love in a way you can understand, if at all. QED.

This meshes neatly with the deist argument, that God retreats from the universe after its creation, in this example due to psychological damage.

If you consider the idea of a man in the sky loving everyone irrelevant, please disregard this.

Major Project

2008-07-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

I'm an amateur writer, and a big fan of speculative fiction. It always struck me as odd how fantasy was always stuck in the past, and if it showed a modern setting, it was always the real world, never a fictional one. So I set out to create a mid-twentieth century fantasy universe.

It's hard. But the hardest part is the culture. I have essentially destroyed every song, film, painting, sculpture, book, historical reference, figure of speech and religion. Now I need to replace them.

Dear (potential) readers, that's where you come in. Any of the above pieces of culture that you submit, that can exist in my universe, will exist. Every character could hate it, it could be the equivalent of a rickroll, but it will exist.

If you don't think music can be expressed in novels, I recommend Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch series.

Personally I'm hoping that someone notable will participate.

An email address for submissions will be up soon, as well as more information about the universe.

Webcomics

2008-07-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

Most of you probably noticed the Penny Arcade reference in one of my earlier posts. Artistic content on the net has by now diversified into three groups: webcomics, blogs and videos. With that in mind, here are some of the webcomics I enjoy.

Current:

Concluded:

Get through these and you might get some of my jokes. Hopefully.

As long as the server doesn't crash

2008-07-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

Anyone who's read Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut should recall that the fatalistic characters treated death with indifference as the person was alive at many other moments, like looking along a mountain range.

That's what blogs, and especially services like twitter, make me think about. It's 11:00 at night, and this blog post is the only evidence I'm alive. It is, basically, my existence at this very moment. People who tell the world their entire lives will have their entire lives live forever.

The Name

2008-07-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

It doesn't really mean anything. Just a compound word that got three hits in a Google search, all in German.

But, much as I hate to admit it, the name does reflect my style: a post-modern take on the fantastic.

Try to remember it, there will be a test afterwards.

Opening Lines

2008-07-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

My name is Nicholas Hobday. I was born in October 1990. I am starting this blog in July 2008 for three purposes:

1. This is a blog. That means copious linking to the latest AWESOME!1! content on the web. I'll try to contain myself.
2. To work on and publicise my writing.
3. To get all my bizarre ideas out of my head, off my desk, and into the world.

Just one more thing to get out of my system before I begin: First post. That is all.