Who, What, Where, When and Why? I do not know.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Do you really think you have any privacy?

Once again, Facebook is under the gun for privacy issues with their new "Facebook Places" application. Similar to Foursquare (which no one seems to have a problem with privacy wise) people can check in from anywhere using their smart phone and all your friends will know where you are, where you've been and what you're doing as long as they are using the app as well. If you want to disable Facebook Places you can do so from this link on Switched.com.  Me, I don't own a smart phone. I can't afford the ridiculous amount of money providers charge each month to spend ungodly amounts of time updating where I am at any given point in time and space. Who the heck cares where I am anyway? I certainly do not care where Jo Schmo is enjoying his morning cup of coffee and if he is the mayor of the local trendy donut shoppe. Unless Jo Schmo has a job for me, I could care less where he is.

People scream about how their privacy is being invaded and how Google and Facebook are all of a sudden evil hoarders of information and are going to take over the world. Privacy is an illusion, a nifty idea that has long been swept away in the giant wave that is the internet. Facebook is not some benevolent entity, joyfully providing you with a open forum to tell everyone what you crapped in the toilet this morning or that you're now single. It is a business. Facebook, Google and all the other nifty "free" things you sign up for (which btw, erode your illusion of privacy even more) are in it to MAKE MONEY! When will people wake up to the fact there is nothing free! The whole idea behind social marketing is: Become buddies, then hit them with the sales pitch. Facebook knows this, EVERY single operating entity on the internet knows this! It's all about the Benjamins!

My biggest paranoia is Spychips. RFID tags. This is where we should be concerned! Having tracking tags placed in the clothing we buy, and possibly even implanted in our bodies! That is some scary stuff right there.
Katherine Albrecht is a major force against these truly privacy invading monstrosities. Check out her site at http://Spychips.com for some truly eye opening reading.

If you're on the internet, have a social presence ANYWHERE, use a credit or debit card, signed a lease, bought a car or a house, used any sort of customer discount card, bought anything online, filed your taxes, applied for a job or loan, opted in to get emails, joined a forum or group, you've pretty much given all the information you need for anyone to pretty much find anything out about you. You can't hide from it unless you intentionally go 'off the grid' and I really think that's pretty much impossible unless you never had any records about you from birth. I've done reverse phone number look ups, traced IP addresses and googled names. It's too easy.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Is Antoine Dodson a hero?

You bet he is. I certainly hope he gets as much money as he possibly can from protecting his sister from being another rape victim. He is in the middle of his fifteen minutes of fame and I hope he makes the best of it!

You have to give kudos to the Gregory Brothers at Auto Tune The News from Barelypolitical.com for doing such a fantastic job on the song, too.

This is the full version of the song.

iDesktop.tv


Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Are you looking forward to Guild Wars 2?

I know I am! My main character, Dela Darklodina on Guild Wars just turned 5 last week. Between my children and I, we have 14 character slots. I think at least 4 of them are my mules!

I've tried tons of MMORPG's, but I keep coming back to Guild Wars. The game looks great, runs great and plays great. It does suffer from lack of anything meaningful to do once you've completed the main story arcs, but all games are like that. Right now, I'm mostly title grinding and finishing up The War in Kryta content, which is actually fun and challenging.

Well, finally Guild Wars 2 is going to make it out one day and I for one, am pretty stoked about it.



Do you play Guild Wars? Look me up in game and let's go Vanquish some areas!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Have you added your Behance Portfolio to your Linked In profile?

By themselves, the Behance Network and Linked In are two really great resources for professionals in the graphic arts field. Now they have combined to allow your portfolio from Behance to show on you Linked In profile page. This is really nifty because potential clients won't have to navigate away from your Linked In profile to view samples of your work. It's simple to set up and edit.



Friday, August 6, 2010

Do you sell your work online?


"Streetwalkers"






Do any of you artists sell your work online via web site, ecommerce site or eBay?


I'm unsure of whether to sell art directly from my site, or somewhere like etsy or a dedicated art site. 


As an experiment, I've put up three illustrations I have done for Holistic Designs Fading Suns Role Playing Game for auction on eBay.


"Meditation"
"Streetwalkers"

"Meditation" 

"What's your plan?"

These are not prints. They are the original art that was used in the publication.

Have you had success selling your art online?

"What's Your Plan?"




Hey! They have some Fading Suns stuff on Amazon!

                                              

Monday, August 2, 2010

Do you want to take a trip to an uncharted, pristine land?

Brynn Metheney is a phenomenal artist I met on CGHUB  For the past two years, she has been working on a personal project. The Morae River.

The Morae River is the sole water source for all the inhabitants who dwell in the delicately balanced ecosystem of Solturna.

Brynn says, "The Morae River Project started out as an exercise in world building but has grown into a personal exploration in writing, drawing, and evolution. I have always had an interest in designing fictional organisms but had yet to put them into any sort of context. In spring of 2008, I decided to create organisms with the idea that they would evolve with and shape their environments.


The territory of Solturna with it's sole water source,
the Morae River
I’ve constructed a river and the ecosystems that might exist along it and have begun to make it my own. My effort is to represent the more notable of species to give you an understanding of Solturna, it’s flora, and fauna; to perhaps feel that these organisms are thought out, organized, and studied."


Brynn has set a fairly lofty goal for herself. There are over 46 million species of animals and 400,000 plant species just in this small slice of continent she has devised.



I encourage you to head over to The Morae River and spend some time living in Brynn's marvelous imagination!

You can also follow The Morae River on Twitter

More of Brynn's works and musings can be found at the following links.

http://www.brynnart.com/
http://brynnmetheney.posterous.com/
http://www.fishhookstudio.com/