So, my adventure in photography continues. After the leaves came down finally, I've been waiting for a trip, or snow, something special I can go shoot. It's been a long wait, radio silence from my photos recently. In the past few months I had a video card explode, so I took the opportunity to dismantle all the radio gear from the my PC, and move into a full photography workstation. It wasn't easy [or cheap, holy crap] along with expanding my working photography gear.

So, it all started with me wanting a new tripod to replace the Neewer 66 inch that I have. One of the legs stick, the center column doesn't always cooperate, the ball head sticks and grinds. That tells me the tripod as well as it served during the last year, is failing. So I bought a FLM tripod, I looked at Really Right Stuff, Pro Photo Gear, Benro, Manfroto, Gitzo... I came to a conclusion. tripod companies really like photographers. Not so much the person behind the lens, but the wallet in the pocket of the person behind the lens. Of course buying just the legs of a tripod isn't enough. I needed a new ball head to fit on this thing. And good ball heads? Yeah, pricey. I wanted something form the Colorado tripod company, but because of the pandemic they're radio silence and not producing anything. I hope their business survives this monster of a year. I looked and looked... finally, I began watching some photographers on YouTube, checking out their gear... I discovered Thomas Heaton, and his Long Lens Head, and the big brother the panorama head by arcatech. I liked the idea, not a ball, tilt, and swivel, it's a great head. This created another problem, to get a full range of mobility with this head, the base needed to swivel instead of the head itself, so I bought the bowl head for the tripod. I liked the panoramas I shot this year, so I wanted to do more, the base lets me level it quickly. This of course led to yet another problem I had invented for myself, turns out a nodal rail is handy!

It of course didn't stop with the tripod, I needed studio lights. I will be working a few cons as things re open as a photographer, I wont name them here. Beyond those cons I also have some projects I'm doing with a furry non profit organization. [Again, no names]. Those require backdrops, lights, reflectors, stands... so yeah... After searching through the ecosystems available to us mere mortals I discovered Godox. Not as expensive as some of the other lighting solutions, but still pretty nice! I bought some older SKII 400 Watt lights, a set of 200 Watt pocket lights, plus a head to attach them together to make a third 400 watt light. Plus a bunch of other junk to modify light, or even attach one of those 200 watt lights to my camera and use it as a TTL. [Because screw peoples vision, I'll blind you if I have to!]. Of course I bought a backdrop assembly, and a very basic backdrop to fit it... I have a photography friend giving me four or five other backdrops too!

So, getting into all of this I discovered another fata flaw. If you're using strobes, getting all the lights metered correct and setup for proper exposures... Well it's trick... Enter the light meter. This was a painful process. I spend more time on the trail shooting landscapes than in studio, and if I'm going to have a light meter It needs to be able to spot meter. [I have ruined so many shots by under or overexposing something.] So, back to buying junk that I didn't even know I needed, much less existed... So, Sekonic to the rescue, or more specifically a great buy on ebay. Had everything I needed for fairly cheap. Well, sometimes you get lucky. The woes didn't end there though! Because I realized, getting skin tone correctly was IMPORTANT.... Enter...another...thing.... Yeah, this keeps happening. I discovered this company called Xrite, they made tools to help you with color. There's a hand card called a Color Checker Passport, looked interesting, and I found it on sale! This is the most expensive bit of plastic and paper I have ever bought.... Seriously, who comes up with this junk... I get this thing ordered, and that's where crap gets real...

Enter my editing monitors. I use this 144 hz curved 24 inch side by side monitors. I thought they were PERFECT for editing photos! well, by now, you know where this is going. These grand monitors of mine? They see 86% of the sRGB spectrum, it's not TERRIBLE.... but if you're serious about photography, and I am, you need something with better color reproduction. So, monitor shopping.... I go through a huge list of brands, monitors, resolutions... All of it. Eventually, through the power of observation while watching endless photo youtubers... I keep noticing this one monitor. A BenQ 27 Inch photo editing monitor.. The BenQ SW2700PT 27" IPS QHD Adobe RGB Color Management Photo Editing Monitor [That's a freaking mouthful]... Well, at least it wasn't one of the 8.000 Dollar monitors I had seen. I find a decent deal on ebay, get it in, while I'm waiting I remembered Xrite had a product... To calibrate the monitor exactly... Finally, I'm working with all of this new stuff, getting photo editing worked out, and I come across this thing called a Loupedeck... So, it seemed useful, had a lot of features I have wanted, helps speed up my workflow.

Finally after all this endless annoyance.. I have a bunch of stuff. Yup. That's what it boils down to, stuff. Granted all of this is very useful to me, it's all niche market items. Pretty much all of this is pretty well for photographers, and wouldn't be useful in most areas. I'm glad I have all these tools at my disposal now, really I am. I have learned a massive amount about photography, tools and tricks. The one thing I wish I had right now, was a good snow storm, or a trip to some far off area where I could just wander and find new places and stuff to photograph. Of course, right now I'm having the underside of my house rebuilt and can't actually leave.... [Seriously.... Having your entire floor rebuilt is no joke.] Sooner or later I'll be back out playing with all these new toys, and reminding people... If you want to keep kids off drugs, get them into photography... They wont be able to afford drugs... rent, cars....girl/boy friends.... I really should of started collecting gold instead...woulda been cheaper...

Ok, so I'm not THAT old, though the fandom does consider me to be a Gray Muzzle. 38 years young! So, in my quest to continuously improve my photography... I learned some new tricks that...honestly? I should of learned AGES ago. First of all, figured out how to turn the grid on my camera on... finally... Fujifilm hides that down DEEP... well not really, but It took me a few to figure out where it was, even with a step by step breakdown. That's useful, I don;t usually go by the rule of thirds, but it can be a helpful guide.

Second, The freaking Histogram... do you guys have any idea how long it's taken me to realize that little graph actually comes in handy before I get it into Capture One? I feel like an idiot, all this time I'm trying to eyeball my exposures, and personally I think I did alright... But now? That handy dandy little tool just lets you know where everything should be, then adding the filters on top of it... man....

Third... Focus Stacking. So as of this exact moment, I am transferring 621 images form an SD card to the computer. However, I have learned that my camera will automatically find points of focus and sweep the image for focus spots... Now, it's entirely possible that I don;t find a single shot in this mornings shoot that I like, but I am feeling really optimistic.

Fourth, and finally... I have been using aRGB this whole time, but turns out for prints sRGB actually works better... Well, as a fox I can proudly say we can in fact learn new tricks, and I intend on putting them to good use.. Also... Sunrise is amazing to see, a pain in the tail to shoot.. The light changes so freaking fast!

SO.... I'm slowly removing all my furry artwork from this FA account and moving it to another account where it wont be mixed with my photography. My new account will have some things that I never posted on this account.. Things that the community at large tends to frown on, but part of who I am. If you;d like to follow that account for the furry artwork let me know and I'd be happy to send you the account for it. For now though, this FA page is 100% dedicated to my photography.

So, I recently got a whole new load out for my camera gear! Serious upgrade, not cheap, but a friend bought it for me as a way to pay me off for the last twenty years of a series of ridiculous events. So, he gave me a amount to buy new stuff, I got a new Camera Bag, backpack this time, since the shoulder bag wasn't so great at the last con I went to. Endurax Canvas camera bag, really nice, havn't gotten a chance to use it, and I'll explain why in this journal entry, rare as they are.

Obviously I got a new camera, the Fujifilm X-T3, yes, two years old, but after comparing it to the X-T4, I just didn't see the point, I shoot off a tripod for landscapes, and I use inventive lighting to do a lot of portraits. Also got a new K&F Variable ND filter, from 8 to 2000, really nice, though I'd rather some hard stops on it. A Brand new carbon fiber tripod Neweer 66 inch. Yes it has some flaws, however, compared to the monster 72 inch aluminum one I typically take out on shoots.. it's SO much lighter. I got the battery grip for the X-T3, a Microphone for the other eventual goal I have, and a Joby Gorilla pod 5k with the silly little kit on top. Sometimes a nice small tripod is all you need.

So, I get all this stuff in, I'm running around a little, and I crawl down into the stream running around my house, on slick rocks, cold water, take a few shots, figure out the over all positioning, set my ND Filter, re adjust and get my nice new pic. It;s not bad, the new Sensor is so much cleaner for zooming in, and the screen is really nice for showing me my focus, my X-T1 didn't like to give up its secrets on whether I was in focus at night or not... Major problem really, love that camera still though. No new lenses, I was going to tick off the 10-24, or 56, but that will have to wait a bit longer.

So, I find out the new tripod had shown up with my other stuff today as well, just hidden under a big light bar so I didn't see it. It was pretty awesome, I get it set up, run into the house to get my bag out, and coming back outside I took a bad step off my porch. My ankle rolled up inside under me, I heard the most sickening crunching pop noise I've heard in a while... Immediately I try to regain balance, another bit of a pop, land on the hood of my car, and I'm ready to throw up, blinding pain. Super irritating.

So my gut reaction, I think I broke my ankle, I get a chair sit down thanks to my friends, get my boot off, swelling is already pretty severe, thirty minutes later I;m in the hospital hobbling around on a cane, they pull me in, xray the crap out of my foot... About an hour all in all, they tell me it;s not broken, but I sprained the hell out of it... yay me... Blue Ridge Fur Fare a few days away and I can;t walk.. they give me crutches, an air cast and send me on my way.. I get home and slept. So I wake up my watch is telling me its 2:30 my computer swears its 3:30... My brains swimming and I can no longer put weight on me foot at all. Let me tell you, realizing you have to go to the bathroom and knowing you can't walk is a nightmare lol!

So, my big plans to go shoot the sunset over the lake were ruined, and it's going to be a bit before they know if I have totally screwed the ligaments in the ankle. On the bright side, new camera and gear!.... jsut can't get out and use any of it.

So, yes my new photos are a bit over edited. I did most of the editing early in the morning half asleep and am finding today that the contrast is WAY to high, and the white balance is massively off. This is another lesson for me. Most of my photos are Scenic in nature, not so much on the side of portraits, and i do have some Scenic photos to upload, but I want to get better at portrait style shots. I will be updating the photos and trying to correct my screw ups.

It's true, we are making an official comeback. Markus Damone and a lot of the previous talent, plus some brand new! We're hoping to get ourselves up and running smoothly in the coming days, and weeks. We're all entertainers, excited to sit back and rock the days away with members of our community. We have a 24/7 Stream going now, our talent will begin going on and doing live shows where we will interact with our audience. A Radio Station for Furries, by Furries!

http://allfurmedia.com/


http://www.furaffinity.net/user/allfurradio/

Listen to the stream, follow us on FA. We look forward to getting back to work!

Started like any normal day of late. Wake up, drink coffee, sit on the porch, go to work. [Indulge in my favorite TV shows on Netflix!]. The pencil at work sends me off to the Big Six [Not as fun as it sounds] I proceed to stand around deal a few spins. EO [That's Early out for you non Casino Peeps {Probably most of you D:}] Grab a shower at work, because we are stuck in the middle of a remodel that is getting more complicated by the project. Change all my dressings [With a lot of help] and determine I've got to go to the hospital. Well to be fair I tried too avoid admitting it, You see I've got some wounds on my leg that simply are not much fun. Started as a Brown Recluse bite, and after multiple botched and flubbed attempts by multiple doctors, specialists and hospitals here I am. While waiting to get back into Wound Care, I have developed another infection [Yay Me!]. Don't worry, Not looking for sympathy, life happens you know. So here I am sitting in a Emergency Room [Admittedly I don't think it's an emergency] and they get me through triage and into a room. Doc comes in, we talk, nice guy, good looking [Not at All Relevant] He basically does exactly what I told him I needed done, plus a few extras [Waiting on THAT bill]. So he prescribes two separate Antibiotics, and tells me one will be administered as a shot. No biggie, I hate needles, I hate infections more.... So I'm thinking, gee wizz, shot in the arm, gonne be sore for a few days, what a drag. Can you imagine weed eating with that awful lump in your deltoid? It sucks, trust me. HAH, jokes on me though, Nurse slides her way into my room, big smile, cheerful, nice to see in an ER. But good god that needle, thing was HUGE! That's one serious lump in the arm, let me tell you!... Or I would be telling you if she didn't break the bad bad news.... It's not going in my arm. Oh no, lucky me, I'm getting it in the ass today baby! [Not in the fun way!]. So now, here I sit, my butt hurts, and it wasn't even the fault of a cute guy. C'est La Vie [Pardon My French :p]

I'm not one to beg, or ask for financial help, but last night my loyal friend, companion, baby dog was run over by a truck. He survived but the vet bills are piling up and fast. I'm already out of work on disability due to complications with a brown recluse bite. I simply don't have the money. If you can send your thoughts and prayers to max, and send out his gofundme link to everyone you know I will forever be in your debt. gofundme.com/2dxg3tcs

Hello, and welcome back to my past, as I type to you long after I should be sleeping, well into your waking hours [Or so we hope!]. Did you rest well? have I? It's my present, that should be past [Because sleep is like leapfrogging time!]... It's your present, that will be future.... The internet, it collects things, I shouldn't be awake, though my level of coherency is debatable, and I should have gone to bed after I typed half of this once before... and well my video card crashed. I did a lot of typing previously, this all actually started at 8:53 this morning, and it is now 9:27/ I mention this because I may yet go back to sleep.... and perhaps not finishing typing, but right now i am burning up. Earlier I was an ice cube... and i think I have a fever... Did I just ramble for no apparent reason when I didn't even bring up why I'm typing?

CAMERA STUFF! That's why. I want to give a basic rundown of things I have learned in my last year of shooting, improving, changing and growing my ideal of what photography is and isn't. It's not revolutionary by any means, but I feel it might be able to help others, but we have to go back to the basics right? What are the basics of photography? Some of you went to school for this, or read the books.... lets talk about it.

Rule of Thirds. The Golden Ratio.... I bet this one came to mind right away, everyone knows about it, what it does, how it works. Right? Essentially you break your frame down into thirds, and cut those into thirds. like a grid. Nine points, you frame your subject using one of the corners, and use it as a focal point. The Golden Ratio works different, but basically it's the same thing, you create a focal point. It's supposed to catch your viewers eye.

Leading Lines... Self explanatory, except for this [Because I didn't get it at first :p] Leading lines exist to draw your viewers eyes through a photo, or too a subject. They are awesome! Always use leading lines!...Right?

Fill the Frame! Another self explanatory one.... What is it? I mean you click the shutter button, that frame is filled.. .Of course that's not right, you're trying to control how much information is in that frame. You want to capture your subject, foreground, background etc. God... these rules... so awesome, they'll for sure make you awesome!

Except no. As it turns out pretty much all photography books go through this, and they are fundamentals. Well, there you go, consider yourself informed. [I think I'm either being amusing, or harsh, and pretty sure, fever.] What we have here is a bunch of rules to teach you how to explore image composition, except unless you're in a controlled environment getting any of those to work right can in point of fact, be a nightmarish endeavor. So you have your focal length, or you're shooting prime in which case you're fixed.... You get your subject framed up in the rule of thirds.... these lines rolling through the top, the frames filled.. . fek those lines are going the wrong way, the subject doesn't look right up here in the top, lets move them to the bottom.... crap those lines are power lines merging in the subjects head.

Ok soo all that is crap, but we have all been in that situation. So what do you do? We start working the scene maybe, walking back and forth, up and down, circling your subject, trying low, high, angles, even different lenses, get different focal lengths... [I need more lenses D:!!! Mmm... tylenol...] What's that even mean? Photographers see their shot, they go straight to it, take the picture and leave right?..... God if it were that easy....

Early this year I went wandering through the Parkway scenery chasing. Ended up finding a Thunder storm..... hundreds of pictures later I get one poorly taken example of lightning. awesome. It's not bad for someone starting out, but really the photo is crap. I never realized I had a square mile to wander around because I set up and didn't move. Horrible, now I would go back and leave the tripod in the car till I found a few angles. Tripods are Anchors, we set them up, and they prevent us from moving. [Even at night I wander around snapping shots, even if I use a flash, or a flashlight, no you will never see them :p]

Focus points... I end up shooting in manual focus a lot. Nature of night photography really. So I have begun adjusting my cameras idea of focal points [God it was a miracle when I finally realized I could do that!] Sure in auto focus mode your camera selects its focus points [You can tell it not to I have found]. But you're the photographer, why are you letting your camera tell you anything about your exposure? Does the camera even matter? does the tech matter? [YES DAMNIT!!] Nope.... Sure shooting at night with a cellphone doesn;t work well, but really my new smart phone has a native ISO of 1600 :o! and full manual control!!! [And I'm never going to use it cause I'm too good for that] I'll try it out some, I can't take my X-T1 everywhere. [Ok... fine....]

White balance... God I used auto white balance for sooo long I ruined so many shots... just because my camera doesn't understand what I want it to see. Because I shoot a Fuji, it picks up green better than anything else... So, I did a lot of color editing, a lot of my new shots where I Choose my white balance, I almost never alter the color. Because at the end of the day the camera can adjust your color, but it doesn't see the scene!

This is what it boils down to guys, I have spent the last year researching, and shooting. I think maybe I've improved. What does that mean? Did I get better? I don't think better is actually the word here. I think the truth is I became more aware. And worse, I'm right now chipping at the tip of an iceberg so vast even the titanic would have noticed. What this journal entry is, is my way of trying to exhaust myself so I can go back to bed peacefully, while still sharing a small modicum of knowledge to my fellow photographers..... most of which are people who have been at this longer, and know way more than I do...... so...yeah... It's now 10:01, Signing off.

Night photography, it's really something that comes into a bit of an obsession. Standing out in an empty field with no lights, or on the side of a dark and dreary road. Trying to contemplate the real subject of the piece. The stars in the background, the building in the middle, maybe the field leading to it. What angle do you shoot when you can't see? All the flashlights in the world don't help the real product of your imagination, the work you intend to share with the world. Sure you can use light painting to create the illusion of good light, but I find with most modern lights you conflict with the natural lighting of the area. LEDs tend to be blue, but natural moonlight varies, tonight it's yellow, tomorrow it could be greenish, or create strange phosphorus glows. It leads to conflicting white balances, so I avoid the practice when using moonlight. Then you end up with a shooting cycle, and I am realizing now the full moon is great for highly exposed images, terrible for composition. I just haven't figured that bit out yet is all.

So what is this all about then? Really just moving on past my previous journal, maybe I'm fishing for tips, and ideas. I'm beginning to find my abandoned barns and getting permissions in order. I'm now looking into buying Speed lights/Flashes for my camera. Off brand yes, but with remotes, and nifty features, lighting diffusers, modifiers... lighting is cheap. Strangely, while I love shooting people, I really, desperately need to find some suiters and shoot them. [With a camera of course]

Not for money, just for fun, and for a case study. In and out of suits, operating double exposures. I want to understand lighting dynamics. Maybe that is what this is all about, maybe I'm finally beginning to understand light, and now I want to learn to harness it. Work with light, shape light, maybe all my Dark Dreams are just my yearning for a bright day.... Sometimes I wish I hadn't majored in Psychology. [Or watched Dexter.]

This may get a little lengthy, or ranty.... Ranty... pretty sure that's not a word.

So, I've been having issues in my pursuits lately. I can't seem to find a focus, even using the shotgun method. Which is to say, with my wide range of photographs, I cannot seem to find a simple subject I am willing to put my focus on. Is that a problem? Probably not, I am an amateur, I'm still learning about all the technical details of my ventures. It still bothers me that nothing seems to be drawing me in, other than the desire to shoot. Who knows, maybe it would bother me more if I became utterly obsessed.

For the most part, I seem to be moving through phases, or stages. Learning something new as I progress, sometimes going back to those locations to attempt to improve a shot. This leads me to another issue. Every time I learn something new, I have to fight the urge to retake my entire portfolio. For instance. [Warning, newb alert] Just two weeks ago figured out how to adjust my focus points. You guys have no idea how much time it would of saved me if I had figured out why this was useful previously.... I know now... A month ago I discovered white balance, and how to improve the crispness of the photo, and increase depth just by setting my white balance. Headache. Now I'm discovering the idea of lighting, flashes, continues, soft boxes, reflectors, modifiers. That'll keep me busy for a while... and likely a multitude of bad photos, that hopefully I wont torture you with.

So, obviously I've been reading up, watching youtube. Asking for advice, and that's where I have run into my biggest gripe thus far.... Professional Photographers. Not all of them. Not by any means, but I'm sure if you guys dig into this as much as I seem to be, you've run into them.

The Type of person that goes out of their way to try and stop you from learning. Maybe even turn away from photography all together. It's not been just recently I've run into them either. I tend to run into them almost every time I go out during the day... [Surprisingly few photographers do night shoots in my area]. It's strange, it's almost like a patterned behavior. They always stalk about, then approach. They come off with some insane thing or another, or a thinly veiled insult.

A few months back when I was shooting the parkway I was photographing a storm, admittedly, I did it poorly. At the time though I was still very unfamiliar with my camera, and didn't understand the potential as I do now. Another Photographer is up the way, shooting a different angle, eventually he wanders completely around me, then bee lines. I'm not even entirely sure what he said anymore, but it boiled down to "That's a cute toy, but you should drop it off a cliff". Then he was gone. It was odd. This keeps happening. I mind my own business, stay out of the way, smiling and happy while out.

Of course then there's certain Pro's on the net that have made it a point to tell people to simply give up. Painfully apparent they're bitter that people are finding photography, and some of them are amazingly good at it.

One such photographer has a beautiful forum, news, reviews, opinions, and generally great big photography site... Then I began noticing a weird trend. In a lost of the comment sections people would raise interesting questions, or make a compelling statement... This is apparently the point in which the owner of the site decides to tell everyone how much they suck as a photographer if they don't 100% agree with their opinion. I'm a year into this, still very much learning... Does this happen to you guys? or have I somehow poked a hornets nest?

Sooooo For the past fifteen years I've been trying to get my paws on this 78 Anniversary Corvette. But with most such cars, cash is needed to get owners to part with them. A commodity I never have. So three weeks ago I got a phone call, one fell in my lap. The catch? I have to drive to Texas and pick it up, haul it off. So, crappy car right? No... Mint Condition perfectly maintained, three issues, Brake leak, Charging issues, and the two front shocks need replaced. That's it. Now, the real issue with picking it up, I have to do it before September 26th. So I contact my boss, ask him for time off, he tells me everything he has is full can't do it... worse I need two people who work with me to go with to do it, three people before the end of the month with no time to give. On a whim the Boss asks me why I need the days, and I tell him about the car.... As it turns out he has always wanted one, dreams about it, adores it.... suddenly.. all three of us have the time off, he has a catch too though... He wants me to take pictures of it all over the place for him.... and to let him sit in it. So.... Road trip, it's going down.

It's strange to think of these journals as a log. I don't really see them as more than a amusement from time to time, a place to rest my head and vent. I crawled in here today to consider the benefits of whispering out of my exasperation. I could yell scream, and even kick up a cloud of dust, but a whisper will suffice. Perhaps I'm only here today because I'm sick, and cannot seem to get much sleep, coughing up evidence of my immune systems attempt to defeat their enemies on their way to the halls of Valhalla. Perhaps I've come here today to express my disdain for gamblers. Not recreational gamblers, no, the sort of gambler i refer to is a casino lifer, they come and whine, complain, act a fool. I myself act as their babysitter during their stay at my table. Easy money. Really I've no real right to complain, except I do. Those of us with regular normal jobs, we go work our hours, if we work in a customer based environment doing our job quickly, and accurately is considered a good thing. The boss ignores us, the customer thanks us. As a dealer, doing your job quickly, accurately means the customer is going to tell you how every bad thing that has happened to them, is your fault.... It bothers me.... but does it really? My concern is I'm actually amused by it, Sure it annoys me in the moment, but then the moment is passed, they are gone [Mortgage overdue] I laugh. But really, maybe I'm really here today to offer a different choice, a new vision. Something all of us furries can get behind, an anthem to rock us from our sleep. I offer myself up for President of the Vulpine World Domination Corporation. We had a clever acronym, but then someone got it sticky. Vote for me, and get *free casino comps!


So yeah, that's muh rant for the month... VOTE FOR ME!

*All Casino Comps requires spending at least twice the purchase price at the casino

This started as a cute little fantasy. Buy a big bad bridge camera, super zoom, take photos, put it in a bow and ignore it. That hasn't worked out so well for me. I went from my Fujifilm S9400W super zoom bridge camera to a full on a professional camera... A Fujifilm X-T1. I went from taking photos straight out of my camera and posting them, to owning Adobe Light room and utilizing its potential to make the images look good... at least to me. What started as a basic fancy, has turned into a bit of an obsession..... Controlling light, creating interesting effects, playing with all the settings... I went from knowing next to nothing about Photography, to being unbelievably picky about it.... Oh well, at least I didn't decide to collect gold bars... though it might of been cheaper.

It's been Fourteen long years. FOURTEEN... And now... The Duke is back. For you new age gamers out there who think that if it's not Call of Duty then it sucks... Well, feel free to skip the rest of this journal, you wont understand. I played the originals, all of them. I have been playing Shooters since the time of BJ Blastowick, Blake Stone, and of course our dear old forgotten friend Duke Nukem.

So I've read your bad reviews, I've played the game, I saw what people were complaining about. This is Duke Nukem, if you expected prim and polished PC Bull shit then you bought the wrong game. If you bought this game expecting a down and dirty, raunchy expose of everything bad about pop culture... Well you at least knew what you were getting into.

I expected a FPS that looked like Duke, but had been raped by the modern game factories, but no, I got a Duke Nukem Game and I'm happy about it. Will it ever live up to my memory? Probably not. Will it manage to topple the FPS Giants? Not in todays market. Will I play it more than once? Quite probably.... But the most important thing of all... Can I call this a Duke Nukem game.... Your damn right I can.

I don't know what it is recently. I haven't been able to go to sleep at my normal times. Every time I lay down, I just sit there for hours on end somewhere between sleep and awake. I get up, and build stuff on SL, or cut the latest club commercials. [Which I've been putting off for a week now, I have three I need to get done >.< .]. I've been waking up between nine and ten at night, thankfully I sleep a full eight hours, but I'd really rather sleep when I want to. I think I'm going to post pictures of my cat.... he's weird.... and I'm rambling.