http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/i.....shot-self-race

I have no words.

I did not get that Supermodified ride. I am a sad fox.

So....Yesterday around 12:30 pm as I slept(I work nights, shut the fuck up), there was a painfully loud thunderclap that shook the house like an earthquake, then the music playing from my computer stopped. This stood out to me, so I went over and turned my monitor on only to find ERROR MESSAGES OUT THE ASS! Well, just two; Warnings that my virus scanners were no longer active, plus Winamp cycling through my playlist trying to play songs but not being able to. The system was unable to call up any data and I could not get it to do anything at all - not even reboot.

I had to do a hard reset. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that the thunder I heard must've resulted in a lightning bolt hitting near the electrical substation only two miles from my house and causing a power surge.

I have a good surge protector, so I wasn't worried about damage. Particularly not after the computer rebooted with no problem and seemed to run fine.

Cut to six hours later when the computer begins crashing under any moderate stress. A virus/malware scan reveals 8 trojans that must've slipped in somehow while the scanners were crashed. Suspecting these to be the issue, I cleared them out and rebooted.

Crashes continue. Noticing it's happening under moderate loads, three possibilities come to mind: The surge borked the operating system, fried a RAM chip, or damaged the CPU. Praying for the simple fix, I updated my backups with what little wasn't already backed up and did a factory reset.

Things went well until I restored a few programs and crashing began again.

Fuck. Hardware damage. Surge protector, you have failed me. PLEASE be a RAM chip, I began hoping(they're cheap), as I open up HP's diagnostic tools.

RAM chips test out okay. Oh, shit.... CPU test: Passes. Whew. So, what's the problem?

I run every diagnostic I can. I was beginning to think the diagnostic programs were crap and I'd have to test each RAM stick by removing them and booting up with each stick individually, when I got the following:

"Firmware test 173737 34E failed. Status = 7"

It was the hard drive test. Fuck me.

To get a more accurate look I had to run a different diagnostic method, which produced Error Code 303.

Now I have the code I can submit to HP tech support in the hopes of getting tips on how to fix.

The response I got was a business-polite equivalent of: "FUCKING HELLFIRE!!! WARRANTY REPLACEMENT NOW!!!!"

So yeah, my surge protector failed and damaged the hard drive. Fortunately my computer is still under warranty and we have already begun the process of getting a replacement drive.

As things stand, the computer still functions so long as I don't put it under slightly higher than moderate stresses, so I can keep functioning until it comes in.

Even so, I have my Linux stick on standby.

I'd like to take this moment to comment that if you have heard bad things about HP customer support, revise your assessment. HP has a reputation for trying to weasel out of warranty replacements that, for my money, seems unwarranted. On this computer I have had three failings: Two fans and the hard drive. The fans don't surprise me - they're the single most stressed components on a computer and I'm amazed they don't need to be replaced twice a year. The first time was the CPU fan and I replaced it myself on account of not wanting the cheapo part that HP installed in the first place.

The second fan was the GPU fan which I had to get a warranty replacement for the ENTIRE GPU because the fan is not replacable on this card. In that matter, not only did I get quick communication and shipment of the replacement, but I had never replaced a graphics card in my life and was a touch nervous. HP provided excellently detailed instructions on what to do, with a pictoral guide, so that any idiot with decent hand-eye co-ordination could do the job.

With the GPU fan failure, tech support gave me some "Try this to make sure you've identified the failure accurately, and see if this stops it" all of which I had already done. After being informed of this, the warranty replacement was a smooth and painless process.

I have nothing but good things to say about HP customer support. If you're looking at an off-the-shelf PC, I recommend HP just on account of the service. They may go a touch cheap on the fans, but goddammit they're willing to help you out when shit fails. I've never encountered such a pain-free warranty system anywhere else in my entire life.

Just remember: If you're buying an off-the-shelf PC today, SAVE YOUR PREVIOUS COMPUTER'S WINDOWS 7 KEY! You DON'T want Windows 8!

Not due to drama(thank you all for being smart about handling that outburst), but simply due to the fact that I do not wish to have such an irrational outburst prevalent within my journals. I meant every word stated within it, but the way it was done is bound to cause some drama down the line given the rabidness of many of that game's fans.

It was also posted during a period of frustration over many unrelated deals(one related to matters mentioned in a previous journal), and the Skullgirls matter just topped it off and caused an explosion of rage. Really, it's a good thing that WAS the trigger for such a release otherwise I could've ended up in serious trouble elsewhere.

Fortunately the BS has died down and I've chilled out considerably. Only one minor piece of frustration is still ongoing; A case of another user's chronic tl;dr(despite the posts being shorter than this paragraph!) elsewhere here on FA, but even that's gotten to the point where if it doesn't resolve itself I'll be done with it.

Not going to apologize for the outburst, but the matter is done. Just keep in mind that I stand by what I say and, while I may not be quite so forceful about it, efforts to broach the topic are going to be rejected, and not necessarily in a polite manner.

...The financial situation is still sufficient that I could technically begin at any time, but a continued lack of planning time(only a few more main details to hammer out) has prevented me from moving forward.

And while the financial situation for it is still sufficient to begin, some recent drains have forced me to be a little more cautious so I am not exactly rushing to do this. I still want to get a few Fred Perry drawings of a couple of major chars done before I move forward with the writing, as well.

I still intend to do at least the first tale of the world done this year. Whether or not I do anything past that will rely on reader response and whether or not I can develop it further.

I can't believe things have gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering this, but.... Remember that forum I made mention of recently?

Yeah, according to some friends who were still there, the mod that banned me has gone out of control. Anybody who voiced support for me has been banned, and in order to avoid outside influence, they have locked out all registration by requiring administration approval. These are steps the lead admin, a normally decent guy, would not take on his own, so my suspicions about the moderator that banned me have been almost entirely confirmed.

And he needs a wake-up call.

I'm not exactly gung-ho about about this idea, but there's little that can be done short of it. Why am I so worried about a forum I was banned from? Simple: When the lead admin was allowed to be his normal decent self, it was a GREAT place to hang out(if you were interested in the topic) despite this bad moderator, and there are far, FAR too few such places on the Internet.

Despite the thread title, I am not at all keen on the idea of actually password-cracking the forum and taking over the mod accounts to force the matter to a resolution - I've been trying to handle this like a decent human being, after all. But I can't ignore it as a possible last resort. I'd actually first like to try mass registrations in the hopes someone gets approved and can get enough users in the forum going on this to force a resolution.

So... Anyone interested in saving a forum from going to shit?

So, in addition to racing economods this year at the local dirt track and working as lead test driver of a new type of modified meant to run dirt and pavement, I may be getting a one-off ride at a nearby round of the MSR(Must See Racing) Supermodified Series.

All this on top of my day(or rather, night) job. Gonna be a busy year.

If on any forum, no matter the subject matter, you have reason to believe one of the moderators is treating you unfairly, take it to the lead admins ASAP. I did not, and now I have been banned from a forum I very much enjoyed because of one moderator's hate-dick for me. He took great pleasure in giving me a very insulting, gloating ban message, but because of said ban I am now unable to contact the lead admin to get the matter sorted.

The above recommendation applies even if you have reason to believe the lead admins are part of the problem. Inform ALL of the mods. The more people know you're aware of the BS, the harder it is for them to get away with this.

I lost my opportunity, and now I am unable to enjoy a forum I enjoyed quite a bit.

I cannot give any ETAs on when I can officially start this project. My financial situation is sufficient to begin commissioning, but shit keeps popping up that takes away my planning time, so I don't have any sufficient outlines to send out to writers.

In the meantime, I intend to, fairly soon, commission an image of Sasha as she was originally envisioned. The Fred Perry drawn version is and will remain the official version, but she was originally supposed to be much bigger - both in muscle mass and the chest area, but we hit the limit of what Fred felt comfortable drawing. But I thought it'd be nice to show what we originally planned for her.

Additionally, we are awaiting a chance to have Fred draw one final major GDU char before we move forward anyway. That opportunity is supposed to come sometime around March.

More side stories in the vein of Sari's Tale may be possible if I get sufficiently-planned ideas in my head before we get to starting the meat of the story.

On that note, I REALLY want some input on what people thought about Sari's Tale - please post comments on it in the posting of the story either here or on Jen's account.

Also, if you want to see GDU content without having to dig through my other FA content, I am repurposing my old DeviantArt account(http://gowcaizer.deviantart.com/), originally meant to promote Spliced Senshi(a tale long since dead) into the page meant specifically for GDU content. The Scrapbook will hold the old Spliced Senshi content, but the main gallery will be all GDU.

HOW DOES WORK.

http://scimew.deviantart.com/art/Sa.....Door-348866326

http://scimew.deviantart.com/art/Sa.....tick-350153155

I will shortly be clear of the debt that is holding back this project, but circumstances force a delay until around March.

Before I start really going into the project, there are two more characters I want to commission. And to finish off this first wave of GDU char commissions I want to stick with commissioning Fred Perry for consistency, and current indications are no opportunities will arise until around March.

Now, I AM planning a few commissions involving already-unveiled chars to tide over those of your who are interested in the project, but as one of the two remaining character is very important to the core plot(and I want all of the unique core characters shown before I go forward) I feel the need to delay.

Sorry to disappoint.

My fiancee says it best: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4126740/

I stand by her completely.

Okay, in the past I have had nothing but praise for Windstream's DSL service and customer support. Every time I had a problem and called in they were able to find the problem and fix it, and they've even taken the franky brilliant step of advising you to check the plugs as part of the automated message rather than wasting the tech guy's time with it(same with the reboot attempt - it is now automated).

Up until now, the worst problem I had with them was having to wait for on-site service for what turned out to be the modem dying. And given I was told "sometime between 10:00 and 3:3)" and the matter was done before noon, it was only a mild nuisance.

I now take back everything good I said about them. Literally ALL of it due to this one single unacceptable load of bullshit.

Right now, I have almost no speed whatsoever. I'm lucky if I can get 30 KBPS on a download. When I can usually get 350 KBPS, that's quite a drop. This started yesterday and when I called tech support I was told ti was a downed line causing bottlenecks, and by the time I got home from work my connection speed was back up to par.

But around 3:30 today, it dropped back down. So I call again, this time I'm told there's on overuse of the area's bandwidth and they need to adjust certain inputs to fix it.

Estimated time of repair? DECEMBER FUCKING 31ST.

This is not something that should take HALF A GOD DAMN MONTH to fix! They're not rewiring the fucking phone lines, they're redirecting datastreams to other servers to relieve the stress! This should take a couple DAYS at most!

Seriously, FUCK YOU WINDSTREAM. If you manage to fix this in a reasonable amount of time, I'll consider apologizing, but the fact that you felt the need to estimate HALF A MONTH to fix this says all I need to know about your efficiency. Clearly, I have just been lucky when I made my tech support calls in the past.


EDIT: Despite the above I obviously cannot downplay how good things have gone up until now with Windstream, but in the light of this matter we are now seriously considering a switch to Time Warner Cable Internet. As pleased as I have been in the past with Windstream's tech support, a company that cannot do this in a reasonable amount of time(remember, this all stuff done at computers, no field work - there is no reason for it to take that much time) is not a company I can continue to trust down the line.

We will not rush. If Windstream gets this fixed in a reasonable amount of time despite the repair estimate, we will stick with them.

First and foremost regarding the "Writers needed" matter: THIS WILL BE A PAID JOB. We're not talking pro writing kind of stuff, this is not to be a published matter(copyright would make that difficult). It will be series of fanfiction-length stories available online only, so it's really just a commission job, but it will be MULTIPLE commissions.

This isn't going forward until next year because I have some credit card debt to finish off before I can really commit any major money to this project. Despite this, I have commissioned a cheap little vignette from the GDU universe that is currently undergoing proofreading and will be posted here(and one Jen's account) once done. This little vignette is just a sort of test of the universe to see if getting a portion in writing could encourage me to push forward, and seeing the rough draft has done just that. (it covers a character that will be appearing off and on in the main series but whom I have not revealed yet)

Now, I'm not going to hunt down writers to hire until I'm in the monetary position to begin commissioning the work. But I would like any writers interested in taking on the job to get in touch so we can work out an idea of what pricing will and whether or not you'd be comfortable writing the subject matter.

If you know of a writer who may be interested but likely hasn't seen this journal, don't link me to them - have THEM contact ME if they're interested.

I'll be taking notes on the matter and use the time until my finances clear up to decide who to hire for what - I do anticipate having multiple writers on this project.

My style of handling commissioned writings leaves a lot of creativity open - I generally give the start situation, the end situation, and give only the most important details for the stuff in between. I feel maximizing the writer's creative freedom makes for a better story, and we're dealing with a world that leaves a lot open despite the important details that need to be adhered to.

Note me if you're interested in writing this. I understand that unexpected problems can come out of nowhere, but please try to make sure nothing foreseeable will interfere with your ability to take the job(end of January, early February is when things should clear up for me if all goes well) before offering.

I'll be writing up a "universe bible" of sorts to help prospective writers, but it likely won't be ready until about when I'll be ready to commission works.

Questions? Just ask below!

...Because it doesn't directly belittle the victims.




Have you heard about this new drink called the Sandy?

It's a watered down Manhattan.

In an emergency meeting of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board of directors today, the decision was made to fire IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard.

Bernard's efforts as CEO have been almost solely responsible for the quality of the series this past year and it's more positive profile in the public eye. Unless the IMS board has something good in their back pocket, this decision will ultimately bring the end of the IndyCar Series.

NASCAR's execs are smiling ear to ear at this news.

RIP IndyCar,m it was fun while it lasted.

Hey - never posted about my progress with the collapsed lug, but I'm obviously fully healed. If you're not interested in this matter, skip ahead a bit(to the boldface "anyhow").

The insurance company DID try to weasel out of covering the hospital visit until my boss went to the office to deal with it personally...And essentially got the agent who denied the claim fired on the spot. The new head of the company are apparently very strict about upholding their policies to the letter, and since our work coverage policy does not expressly overlook people with conditions like mine(Asperger's), they are expected to pay out. The agent apparently had become notorious for not adhering to the new rule, and in denying our claim he blew his last chance to stay employed.

He'll get no sympathy from me - had he been in one of the previous health providers we had, I'd have directed my anger at the company since it was policy in those cases, but this guy was outright trying to use his idiotic beliefs to override the company's rules. Assholes like him getting to the top are part of the reason insurance companies get so much shit.



Anyhow, on to more interesting things. Some of you may have noticed my last few postings have been commissions relating to something called Gold Digger Ultimate. GDU is a concept project I've been working on with Jen and Maverikat. It started with a random custom action figure I made in order to improve my customizing ability, which simply developed through -of all things- jokes into the basic concept for GDU Xero.

GDU is mostly a "What if?" thought process centered on creating unique characters based around a weird occurrence. As explained in the pic of Ultimate Jen and Xero, it centers on an event that turns 1/20 of Earth's population into various lycanthropes.

We've toyed with the idea of writing stories set in the world, but the ideas always fall short for various reasons - two big ones are that we have ideas for certain events, but only the beginning of them and the final outcome, nothing in between, and that there are only so many characters we can come up with on our own.

So that's where you all come in! By offering the input we're asking for, we're doing two things; Gauging interest in the idea, thereby determining whether or not it's worth trying to get stories written, and also getting the actual writing DONE if we get that far.

If you're a decent writer looking for an idea to work with, PM me and we'll talk. Be aware this would NOT be a paid project - being a fan project this involves copyrights that we don't hold and bringing money into the mix can open a can of worms we do NOT wish to touch. But you'll get some additional promotion for other works.

The input we need is for other characters to slip into the series and, if things go far enough, eventually filling in the open space between Point A and point F in the ideas we've come up with so far.

You need to follow these guidelines for suggesting a character:

1: No "average joes/janes." The series will focus on some pretty serious stuff, and while a character idea can have a person who BEGINS as an average person, for use in GD:U they need to be able to bring something to the story. Average joes are easy to come up with on the spot for random throwaway bits.

2: Lycanthropes are encouraged, but not required. Interaction with humans is a big, BIG part of this concept, so coming up with a decent number of them is a good idea.

3: Basing your character on your fursona, or that of another person(with permission) is okay, but it can't be a carbon-copy, it MUST be reworked to fit the universe this is set in.

4: While there are some exceptions, for the most part elements introduced to GD post time-skip are to be ignored - this takes place in the time between GD color 100 and 101. Limit your assumptions to what is shown before then for now - if there's sufficient interest to continue this idea we'll list the exceptions to the limit in a later journal.

5: There are a few character roles we have already determined that we don't need another of. These will be detailed later on in this journal. Do NOT create a copy of these chars(feel free to submit names for the unnamed ones, though), but if you get an idea for a character related to one of them, feel free to go with it.

Lastly, I KNOW not everyone here knows about the GD universe. If you're interested but a lack of knowledge is holding you back, post such below - don't PM such, post it publicly. If there's a possibility of this moving forward, we'll either post a journal or send you a PM with the information you require.

Okay, here's the roles we don't need copies of:
Xero, Jennet and Maverikat(Ultimate Mav has not been seen in art form yet as we have yet to nail down all aspects of his appearance, but his role is essentially the same as Xero and Jen - they're part of the same group) as detailed here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8422773/ Mav, Jen, and Xero should be the only OCs to have contact with the Diggers family(they will be playing only a small role in this universe) unless you have good reason to make a connection with your char.
Sasha, as detailed here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8997394/ (characters related to her are needed, though)
Sari Hallstead; Jagwere biker babe with a Ducati Streetfighter.
Unnamed military man: Leader of the first all-lycanthrope military unit
Unnamed government agent: Werecat leader of a government organization dedicated to preventing major conflicts.
Unnamed weretigress: Friend of Cassandra Alexandra Tora
Unnamed human villain: A wealthy, highly connected paranoid businessman who falls off the deep end after the event occurs.
Unnamed werewolf villain; A former Klansmen kicked out quite violently who starts a lycanthrope supremacy movement.

Also, even though we're keeping a lid on it, WE KNOW WHAT CAUSES THIS EVENT. We don't need suggestions for that detail.

Now get to suggesting! Remember, you can post ideas or character concepts here or PM them to us, but if you are in need of more GD information before developing such ideas do NOT PM us - just post it here. Or on the journal Jen posts linking here if you prefer.

EDIT: If you think your watchers may be interested in suggesting ideas, link them here! But please, PLEASE make sure they post ideas here or on Jen's journal, not yours! If this idea gains ANY noticeable traction, it'll be too much trouble to keep track of info posted on other people's reposts.

Well, it's only been a few days, but I am progressing well. All symptoms of the cold that caused my injury are gone save for some mild wakeup coughs - but that's nothing to worry about as it's always been one my little physical oddities since I was a kid. They're just a touch stronger right now as I remove the last traces of cold crap.

But regardless, the muscleaches brought on by the pulled muscles are almost completely gone. The only pain still bothering me noticeably is from the collapsed lung, and even then it's nothing that would stop me if it was just a muscle or joint ache.

It's fair to say that the only reason I'm still taking it easy is because according to the docs, as long as I'm feeling pain, the lung hasn't fully healed and I'm still at risk for doing more damage if I'm not careful. So I still have to stay on medical leave from work.

On the plus side, I can now be confident I won't be on said medical leave much longer.

As for the insurance company... Still waiting for word. The longer it takes, the less confident I get.

To bring you this journal, I am braving greater pain than most of you will ever experience in your life. Be thankful.

A few hours ago I returned from the hospital. Why was I in the hospital? Due to a cold.

No, I'm not a pussy. Shut up and let me finish.

I have had some very bad colds in my life. This is not the first time I have severely strained almost every muscle in my upper body from excessive coughing(no joke - I've pulled muscles IN MY HEAD due to nasty colds!). This is, however, the first time I have collapsed a lung from coughing.

Yes, you read that correctly; Collapsed lung. I was coughing so bad that I actually managed to partially collapse my left lung.

The good news; It sounds worse than it is. A collapsed lung refers to any damaging loss of pressure in the lung, This very much fit the bill, but if you look at the lung like a paper bag that's been filled with air, this was more like just opening the top and poking the bottom than popping it between your hands.

Because it was minor as far as collapsed lungs are concerned(but a collapsed lung is always fairly serious), it was easy to deal with and I only spent about 18 hours in the hospital. Mostly to get me some IV antibiotics to help clear up the cold bug to avoid a recurrence(I'd still be there if I was still coughing a bunch).

The bad news: This shit fucks you up for a while. I've been ordered to take a week MINIMUM, possibly two or three, of medical leave to recover. I am not to overexert myself in any way(no worries there with the way my muscles had already been bugging me), and have been advised to stay in bed or in a relaxed position as much as possible.

And I'll bet you a Fred Perry commission that my health insurance will try to weasel it's way out of paying for this.

Moral of the story: If you've got a bug so bad you're pulling muscles from coughing, GO SEE YOUR DOCTOR. Even if you have no med coverage - The prescription will cost you less than the hospital visit if you end up in my position. I got damn lucky it was so mild.

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/top-gu.....041553449.html

Can you say "shocking?"

...That I was surprised in absolutely NO way upon learning that there is an anime centered on a ninja-bitch who takes other women's breast size and adds it to her own?

... But you're still a backstabbing pile of shit. Hope it was worth it, asshole.

http://consumerist.com/2012/04/cong.....-for-2012.html

Okay, let's forget the fact that idiotic fanrage forcing EA to release a change to the ending of Mass Effect is a load of crap that signals the beginning of the ruination of proper entertainment, and focus on a far, FAR bigger problem this reveals.

The Consumerist's Worst Company in America "award" is decided by consumers. You and me. EA was up against Bank of America for this vote.

EA released a game with an ending people didn't like. Shit happens. In the proper world, if you don't like something a company like EA did, you simply boycott their products. You don't bitch and moan until they fix it to your liking - storytelling sometimes has disappointing endings. DEAL WITH IT, YOU FUCKING MORONS.

Bank of America has FORECLOSED ON HOMES THEY HAD NO RIGHT TO. They literally STOLE homes from families -as well as all their possessions- because the fucking felt like it, and the courts sat there and did NOTHING while every legal expert in the country was citing exactly why -oftentimes in front of a judge- the foreclosures never should have been permitted.

AND YOU FUCKING MORONS THINK EA IS A WORSE COMPANY THAN BANK OF AMERICA?! FUCK YOU! FUCK EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!!

I never thought I'd say this about anyone, but I hope Bank of America pulls their shit on you and your family. If you voted for EA in this poll, you deserve to have your home and everything you own yanked out from under you for no legally justifiable reason.

The level of whining about Mass Effect 3's ending was idiotic from the beginning. I haven't played it, so I don't know what happens, but NO ending justifies this kind of bullshit.

FUCK. YOU. ALL. Get the fuck off my planet.

I'll let Jen's journal fill you in on the details: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3292000/

As a (potentially) rising talent on LordKaT's stream, I strongly urge you to support LordKaT. The stream will likely be back up due to the takedown notice not having a leg to stand on, but we can't let TNA get away with this unscathed.

It's one thing to file a DMCA takedown notice over a legal grey area(which happens all too often), but this activity is, put simply, PURE EVIL.

A few months ago I, on a lark, decided to try and make a few custom action figures. Just for the hell of it. The results were... questionable. However, I've continued to work on it and, while I expect I'll never be good enough to ever whore out this skill, I have recently completed a few figures I think MIGHT be worthy of display online. All of the currently presentable figures are Gold Digger-style weres, save one.... Which is BASED on the GD were style.

So I ask... Would you like to see them?