Dear Assorted TV Executives,

I would like to humbly submit for your consideration that Normality Restored could easily be turned into an animated series very cheaply. First off, most animation for US shows is actually done overseas in what some might call “Animation Sweatshops.” Secondly, I think that you will find gilgrim and I are very negotiable in terms of salary. I’d be willing to bet, in fact, that producing our show would be even cheaper then, say, most run of the mill reality shows.

More importantly, though, as the writer’s strike continues we, the american media consumers, are increasingly forced to ingest worse and worse forms of entertainment.

Case in point, the new show from “reality king” Mike Darnell…The Moment of Truth. No doubt this will get huge ratings, it’s due to follow American Idol and people in this country really love seeing others get humiliated on national TV.

In terms of actual quality, though, I’d say that any animated series based on the (admittedly small) comic that gilgrim and I produce would at least equal what’s currently coming out of TV land.

Plus, most animated series are not in the middle of the current writer’s “issues.” With the exception of a few, most animated series writers are not members/not under the rules of the WGA.

A quick aside to any WGA members out there. Don’t bother calling me a scab. First off, I’m not a WGA member. Secondly, I’m not talented enough to actually take a job from any WGA member. Third, I like to get paid, sue me.

Once again, to my merciful TV overlords, please consider Normality Restored. And please bring back Heroes as soon as possible…

Your humble servant,
kilian

Those that know me, or have been following my personal bloggings for the last year, know that I have a thing for French Bulldog puppies. You see, whenever I’m sad, or am having a bad day, all I have to do to help thwart the pain of my current predicaments is do a google image search for the inarguable cuteness that are French Bulldog puppies. Most of the time this works to an amazing degree. I developed the habit when I was working at Blizzard and my teammates and I would participate in ‘image search races’ where we would use the google function to try and find the best, weirdest and funniest or most random images the fastest.

This tradition and practice has continued into my new job. Although there is no official ‘race’ everyday, there is still the occasional need to find the weird and obscure. To this end, and in celebration of this weird and delightful net-surfing pastime I present to you my collection for today of the weird and unusual from ye olde interwebz. Behold:

A creepy man in a creepy hat

“Spiders are the fiercest hunters on the planet!”

this is why furries frighten me… O_O

. . .

And there you have it, my image findings for the day, enjoy, smile, and try not to think too hard about the weirdness that is out there waiting to be found on purpose or by accident in the digital-web-i-sphere.

–Aleister

I think we can all agree that, on the whole, this isn’t a place where we delve in too much serious discussion. Today, though, I do feel compelled to say a few words about the official beginning of the presidential election cycle. Why is today the official start? Because tonight, all across the “great” state of Iowa registered voters will gather together to caucus it up like it’s 1999…or 2008, I suppose.

What’s that? No caucus doesn’t mean that, pervey!

Basically, a bunch of Democrats from each of Iowa’s counties will get together in rooms and, I’m not exactly sure, shout at each other or something, until they decide who they support. The Republicans will do the same thing, though they’ll be in different rooms than the Democrats. At the end of the night we, the American voting public, will know who the new (or not new) front runners are for each party’s nomination.

Next Tuesday then brings us to the New Hampshire primary. This, of course, is much different than the Iowa caucus because it seems to be written in New Hampshire’s state constitution that at the age of 18 you MUST register as an independent.

Wins in either state can propel a candidate into the bigger primaries, such as Kerry’s 2004 victory in Iowa and McCain’s 2000 victory in New Hampshire.

Hey kilian, thanks for the civics lesson!

You’re welcome loyal 6 readers. But here’s the point of all this. I really believe that the 2008 election COULD be very important to this country. Now I say COULD because there is a small but strongly defiant part of me that is cynical enough to believe that it really doesn’t matter whose inaugural ball is going on just over one year from now since it seems increasingly clear that the two parties are on course to meld into one Uber-party about 15 years from now, but I digress.

On the whole, there are a lot of similar candidates with shades of difference. For instance, I whole heartedly agree with the PMJA staff’s assertion that Hillary and Giulianni are pretty much the same candidate (and, has anyone ever seen the two of them in the same room…think about it…).

Certainly, there exists the possibility that someone like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich could get elected, but let’s be realistic folks. We’re really looking at six (possibly seven) viable candidates at this point; Hillary, Obama and Edwards on one side, Romney, Giuliani, McCain and (if you believe recent polls, which I don’t) Huckabee.

For those that don’t know, I’m a leftist. In fact, I’m a registered member of the Green Party. I don’t take that affiliation too seriously as I did, with much nose pinching, vote for Kerry four years ago. But I hate the idea of “independent” so I picked the party closest to my views. I point this out only so that you know from which direction I’m approaching the election cycle. While I certainly am curious to see how the Republican nomination shakes out (particularly in light of the fact that no “real” evangelical option is open to the right since, I’m telling you now, Huckabee won’t win the nomination and Romney is a mormon), I am much more interested in the Democratic nomination.

I think that Michael Moore breaks it down fairly well. All things considered, Edwards decision to use matching grants is perhaps the most telling thing that has gone on in this race. Whether it was a political ploy or not, no other candidate has yet done the same.

Of the three, I suppose I lean toward Edwards, though the lean is slight. I certainly don’t feel at all inclined to vote for Hillary. I’d vote for Bill again, were that an option, since he was so entertaining while in office. I can’t see Hillary bringing quite the same zest to the White House though. Plus, I’m pretty sure that if she and Giuliani aren’t, actually, the same person, then she must be a Nazi-robot who traveled through time.

Something about Obama doesn’t sit right with me. He seems good, but for all his “supposed” charisma, I never find myself swayed by him. Plus, I think that if he were to win the nomination, and the election, he would be assassinated within three months of taking office. I just think it’ll happen. 2008 or not, there are a lot of a-holes still out there.

So I guess, by default, that leaves me with Edwards. My wife is high on him, and she’s usually got a better moral compass than myself. But I guess I’m just too tired of being stuck with the “least evil” option. I guess on some level that in our current society anyone who would actively desire/campaign to become president is untrustworthy by default.

If you happened to come here, oh accidentally. Say a wayward search engine dropped you here…then I ask that before reading on, go here first…

OK, now that you’re all caught up..

First off, let me just say that I’m not completely shocked by either Obama’s, or Huckabee’s win.

First on the right, Huckabee played well in Iowa because they have a lot of evangelicals, and he’s loved by Jesus. Let’s not go anointing him the savior of “American values” just yet. Yes, he spent much less than Romney for a greater return, but he also let everyone and their cat know about it, and that thing plays well in a state with a lot of corn. New Hampshire will be a much bigger (and probably more important test) because the Reps in the granite state lean much more to Romney’s kind of conservativity. I doubt Huckabee will even rank in the top three there (probably 5th, behind even Paul), but if he does hit a top three finish in New Hampshire (based, I think, mostly on his momentum from Iowa) then he might be able to start raising more money and compete with Romney…but I doubt it heartily.

Obama…oh how much hope we have for you at this moment…and how I fear it will soon evaporate. Much of the coverage that I saw last night focused on both, the amount of Obama’s victory (his pull with voters across several categories was strong) and the depth of Hilary’s collapse (sidenote: little was made that Edwards finished above, albeit by a small margin, Hillary…even NPR this morning still touted Hillary as Obama’s chief rival), and how Obama = change. Just as with the Republicans, I feel that Obama may not play as well in New Hampshire as he did in Iowa.

OK, so on to responding…

First I’ll start with exsulis’ final point about the loan bail out. When you really look at it, the government isn’t really bailing out those who took the loans, so much as those who GAVE them. Yes, people shouldn’t take loans they can’t pay, but, you know what, a bank shouldn’t give a loan to someone who can’t pay it and then bitch when that loan goes into default.

Sorry, but just like the S&L bail out in the 80’s, this is more about american lending corporations saving face (read; stock price = international trust in said companies = less impact on the dollar which is, by the way, in the shit!). A few people might save their houses as a result, but that’s more or less collateral damage…

OK, another point from exsulis…yes, the economy is driven by business, but as you pointed out, 16 years (yeah, Clinton is at fault too) of near unchecked business practice causes the shit we are seeing now. Business needs some sort of governmental oversight because the fact that business is only in the “business” of making money and all other concerns (human rights, environment, etc) will, inevitably, fall by the wayside. Look, I’m not a socialist (really, I’m not), but anything unchecked (whether it’s business, government, zombies, whatever) is just bad.

Tengu, what doesn’t jive about Ron Paul is the fact that he is a golem controlled by a secret occult consortium run by the gold mining industry.

Kerri, one of the reasons that Obama is getting such good returns is that he has such little experience. Bush (inexplicably, since his dad was head of the CIA, Vice-President and President, plus he’s got a governor brother) sold himself as a Washington outsider and it worked because people wanted “change.” Obama’s doing the same thing, really. And he is a Senator. No he hasn’t been there since the ice-age, like say, Bob Dole. But it’s not like he doesn’t know anybody in Washington.

I do agree with exsulis assertion that Obama’s approach to the war is the most sensible. Look, I actually marched against the war before it started, but I’ve been saying since before then that if we went into Iraq we would have to be there for 2 decades. If we were to pull the troops out now, we’d turn that country (and much of that region) into an f-ing wasp’s nest! What we need is a true international coalition, backed by the UN and NATO, to help us sort out Iraq so that some stability can be brought to the area. Pulling out now will only cause the next generation of Iraqis, who will see us as a bunch of assholes who raped their country then left when we longer wanted to stay, to become Al Qaeda’s next crop of willing recruits.

C, I wouldn’t call them puppets, more like semi-autonomous constructs with advanced emotive matrices…but it’s really just nitpicking.

‘Allo Normalinauts! Sorry, I’m not sure what new moniker to give to our loyal, almost double digit readership here, but for now, I’m throwing Normalinaut into play to see how it fairs. Anyone else who has a better one they’d like to throw down, by all means, please do.

Ok, so we’ve been on a fairly serious bent it seems for the last couple of posts, and with good reason, as what’s currently going on with the Presidential race will certainly effect not just the US but peoples in any other country where our nation’s sticky tentacle pull any sort of influence. So thank you for indulging us (and specifically, the more activist minded Kilian).

Now I’m not saying that this trend of seriousness, when serious issues come up will not be coming back to the forefront here on the old Normality, but I did want to take a moment to touch on some of the not-quite-as-serious things that have also been going on. Not to bend this to a completely egotistical outing, but there it is anyway.

So firstly, for anyone interested, and I assume that we’re seeing some new faces around here from ye olde MyTrix community as well as from Trickster Online Revolution in general, let me take this opportunity to say thank you very, very, very much for all of the truly heart-string-strumming comments on the final Megalo Life that went up this last Monday on the official Trickster Online Revolution website. I meant every last word that typed out in the episode’s commentary and a lot more that would really not be appropriate or in anyway professional for me add as well. I really did love (and hate using the past-tense) working on the strip week after week, and it is my belief thatthe silly little comic outing worked great to promote not only the game, the company, the community and to shed some light on the fact that the game is brought to its loyal players by real people who are weird, wonderful, falable and overwhelmingly human. This was, to my thinking, something that really set us apart from other games and communities that are out there. Obviously, there are games with better graphics, mechanics, support or any other individual component that you could name, than TOR, but I always held the belief that the strength of the title despite the uphill climb against newer, flashier titles and the seemingly endless stream of even-newer-debuting titles, was the community and the way it could interact with the company behind the game.

For me, Megalo Life was one of our several pronged efforts to create and sustain that sort of unusual community/company involvement, and in the passing of the comic, I am bitterly happy to see that I wasn’t too far off the marks in my thoughts. As it turns out, the community does seem to have enjoyed the comic. I never made the thing to have people start clammering that it was the greatest thing to hit the internet since porn, or even the best webcomic out there. It really was, at its inception and at its core, a means for those of us behind TOR to pull back the OZ-like curtain and say, ‘No, it’s ok, there is a man back here, it’s cool,’ and then /wave in a friendly manner. For whatever reason, it was pulled, canceled or decidedly ended… however you want to put it, it doesn’t matter the ultimate outcome was/is the same: the series is no more.

But as I said, the one really positive thing to come out of all of this, especially as the title to this post might suggest, is that when the air started to clear and emotions could be stowed for a bit to re-asses the aftermath, there was nothing more evident than the fact that the fallout of the series has shown what I might humbly term as overwhelming community support for the strip and my efforts.

Again, for anyone interested, especially those from the TOR community, I am deeply thankful that you enjoyed the series, and I am very, truly moved by the outcries of support and even unhappiness to see it/me go. So thank you. I don’t know a better way to express it, than to just keep saying thank you over and over again.

I suppose that it was something of a pipe-dream to think that overwhelming outcries from the community would possibly spring some sort of rethinking to the cancellation decision as the evidence mounted to the fact that strip (like some of the other efforts, such as the now still missing GM Blog) actually did work. It did encourage interaction and involvement in the community and for the game itself. It was a useful effective tool to help set us and our collective efforts apart from the other, and oft-times behemoth-y-juggernaut-like competitors in the online gaming world who always have more money and resources to throw at things than we could dream of. Because of the players, the Tricksters, the community members and the readers of the Megalo Life series that returned week after week, and especially have been showing their support in the final installment, I think it is now assured that the points have been proven. There should no longer be a question as to whether or not it was effective, useful, and basically a good thing.

Doubt can no longer be attributed to the quantifying of the effort - and no question can reasonably be raised as to whether or not the series itself was a much needed bridge between players and corporation.

Thank you once more, sincerely and whole heartedly to every single one of you Tricksters who have come forward in the comment section on the final Megalo Life and in the My Trix thread to show your support and even your surprise at the sudden ending of the webcomic. My heart’ still heavy from the ending of it all, but I can watch now with a smile on my face because I know that I did make a difference, and I made that difference because you let me. Thank you.

The decision always has been and is still now, out of my hands. If I could change it, I would, and perhaps I thought naively that you could effect change as well. Maybe that will still happen, at this point my crystal ball can’t see quite that far into the future ^__^ but I’m glad to have your efforts behind it just the same.

As Megalo Life has ended, in a somewhat traumatic sort of way, suddenly, and without any real warning (announcements, or even being posted on the normal day of the week) I will be taking this week off to finish recuperating from what can only be described as a tumultuous, emotional, rollercoaster of crazy bat shit, and will not be posting a new strip for NR today. I should be able to return to form once more next week, and in the meantime I offer some other stimulus for visual trauma:

If you’ve noticed on the top right side of the NR site here, there is a new section added, along with the Comic Archive, and the Vote Campaign for TopWebComics, and other information, there is a new section (still being polished so be nice, please) titled Gilgrim’s Artwork. So if visual stimuli is what you crave, as they say, buy the ticket, take the ride.

Cheers,

–Aleister

KMFDM - Last Things

Well, I didn’t want to take down gilgrim’s post (since it is well written and heartfelt) for one quick thing…so anyway, read this and let your imagination pique at the possibility…

And I, for one, vote for Normalinauts!

–Kilian