Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)You are a light and humorous person. No one can help but to smile to your wit. Now if only the improbabilitydrive would stop turning you into weird stuff. Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) 100% Moya (Farscape) 94% Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) 75% FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files) 63% Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) 63% Serenity (Firefly) 63% Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) 63% SG-1 (Stargate) 56% Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) 56% Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) 56% Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) 50% Enterprise D (Star Trek) 50% Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) 44%

And I’ve never seen Farscape, but 100% for the Heart of Gold, come on people, that’s a reason to celebrate! Of course, I knew that was an option going into the quiz, and my insane fanaticism of all things DNA meant that it was impossible for any other outcome to occur. Nevertheless, my score makes me very happy, one might even say, much more happy than is healthy.

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

‘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

Firstly, big thank you to Matty for passing this on, and to APrilhead herself for then passing it on to me, so that I may bask in the gleeful joy of this news.

For those that have not already heard, the internet hacking group known simply as Anonymous, has hacked into the FOX brodacasting signal to declare open and unrelenting war on the money-grubbing, brainwashing intent, and media-bullying cult of Scientology.

Here is the main clip which has been circulating - Anonymous = We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Now, I am not particularly a fan in anyway of the mass media and it does not matter to me in anyway if the source is con or lib, to me it is pretty obvious that all broadcast - mass-market news media is simply is about (like all business) bottom dollars. And for this form of ‘entertainment’ it is simply most profitable to push sensationalized versions and spins of what would otherwise be interesting but innocuous fluff, such as the FOX report some time ago on Anonymous itself, which is not the clearest or most accurate depiction of the group or its antics and does not clearly prove that the group they are reporting on is in fact even the same group in question. With this is mind it is important to note that it is FOX who was specifically hacked and their signal was broken into and used to push the most recent message from the group itself. That message, is an open declaration of war against Scientology. If you want to know why this group, legion, of hackers and other revolutionaries is now formalizing their efforts on the infamous cult, watch their video, they will explain in their own words.

For me, this is a startling and exciting phenomenon as it heralds a shift that I think all of us who ever took some small consolidation in fantastic or speculative fictional stories about a coming change to world. The change is coming and it looks like Gibson, Palaniuk, Dick and others were spot on. I don’t think that this is really any sort of overwhelming conspiracy as I tend to not believe in conspiracy theories simply for the fact that that sort of organizational hutzpah is nearly impossible. Instead I see this recent action as an embodiment of the cultural zeitgeist of our society. We all know that things are not as they should be, and that things are simply messed up especially when it comes to large scale media control and brainwashing. It’s easy to dismiss stories about the builderbergs and illuminati, skull and bones, and even scientology as merely overhyped paranoia. Yet, while I personally do not put unbiased stock in everything that comes forth from the mouths of Alex Jones and others like him simply on the face of their own presentations, I think it is impossible to ignore the fact that more and more stories keep popping up in this same vein.

So what does this similarity mean? To me, it is symptomatic not of an overwhelming and shadow-organized conspiracy for world enslavement - no, instead I think it is much simpler, but no less draconian, I believe that these actions by organized and powerful groups are taken as a shortsighted means to a profitable end. But the fact that these efforts, uses of disgusting amounts of spin, misdirection and misinformation and control are not orchestrated on some grand -evil-overlord-sort-of-scale does not dispute the fact that the results are not acceptable.

To this end, I believe that we have slowly been moving towards a revolution of sorts. I think, after watching many developments and trends come in and out of play with new media and information dissemination techniques now available that did not even exist before, that people are beginning to think. They are beginning to truly question, and they are not happy with the answers that they’re receiving as a result. There is no James Bond styled master-villain behind the curtain pulling the puppet strings, no singular shadow-group or figure head that can be villainized, thwarted, and attacked in the ways that movies have taught us for decades. Instead, it is the extremely unpleasant reality facing us that we must confront and stand against the worst results of all of our most utopian efforts and avarice, our shortsighted plans and efforts and our willingness to forfeit our freedoms for security that is staring stupidly back at us through the mirror. I see groups like Anonymous, and am happy to know that thinking is starting a new. I’m happy to see people no longer happy with their flaming little shit. I’m energized, excited and overwhelmed to see the beginnings of what should be a thorough (and likely difficult) change to come in how we handle information, news, media and ideas. The time has come to quit taking the obvious and easier roads offered, the pavement that we’ve laid ourselves in our own laziness that gives control to others instead of relying on the hardship of our own accountability. It could easily have lead to our own literal destruction, but it should be obvious now that there is still time to fight back. There is chance and opportunity to learn from our mistakes and to try and make things right.

Utopian dreams are wonderful, and sadly the efforts generally used to achieve them result ultimately in the reality of dystopia rather than utopia. They work well on paper but not in reality. Perhaps, it is best to strive for utopia and to be content in continuing an ongoing and never ending struggle to keep totalitarian efforts in check. It’s somewhat Jeffersonian, it means that the efforts are never ending and that the struggle is never really with a true and tangible end. but such may be the very worthwhile cost of true freedom. The cost of freedom is not security and the cost of security is not freedom. The cost of freedom is accountability and ceaseless effort, and willingness to fight. By any and all means. I think the fight is finally starting to happen and it’s about bloody time.

The following is the follow up video from Anonymous regarding their first organized effort against the Scientology cult:

Call to Arms - FEB 10th 2008 - We Are Legion. We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. We Will Be Heard. Expect US.

Happy Revolution NR.

–Aleister

Acumen Nation

Buffy was one facet of nerdom that I never got into…not sure why really. I generally like anything with a vampire, or better yet, a werewolf. Anyway, I wasn’t too sad when the televisual iteration went away. But now, that it’s in the decidedly less titillating comic form, Joss Whedon has decided that it was time for the ol’ Buffster to get it on with a chick…

If Whedon would have pulled this back when Buffy was still flesh and blood, I would have certainly tuned in on a weekly basis…it’s not like Sarah Michelle Gellar was against girl on girl action…

I’m just sayin…