Thanks Internet Trolls!

That is of course sarcasm.

I feel it nessisary to mention what happened today before I doze off.

Today I got an email from Chip when I got into work. He mentioned that he came across one of my photos in a thread at 4Chan. Sure enought, there it was, my pour shot.

Now, some history needs to be mentioned before we continue. First, three years ago, I published that photo on a website at that time was called GfxOasis. It was a small site, about 150 members, and unlike DeviantArt at the time, it was more of a hangout/group critique site. I got a lot of positive feedback about it and eventually shared it on DeviantArt. If you know anything about DA its that copyrights have almost never been respected there. The reason I haven’t posted work there since and probably won’t forever. Anyway, about a month after being up on DA, sure enough, someone ripped it and made it into a wallpaper using an “eefect” he claimed to have created. (Actually, I duplicated his “effect” in Photoshop in about 10 minutes). He was claiming it as his own and didn’t even mention me. I got the DA admins involved and I get an email from the guy that made the wallpaper. He asks if he can release it and apologizes for the mix up. I give the guy the benefit of doubt and say yes on 3 conditons:

1. He has to keep my website and logo on it.

2. He has to credit me in the description.

3. He won’t make any other versions or post it anywhere else.

After that he subsequently put out 4 versions without telling me, took my website off it and I’ve personally seen it on at least 5 of the most popular desktop websites and a handfully of smaller one. Each time without credit.

Today was more of the same. It was up in the wallpaper section, without credits, copyrights or anything.

Now, I want to be clear about this. I don’t have a problem with the wall existing. Its actually not a bad wallpaper. But in its current state, the way its being distributed, is unacceptable and I will not allow it.

A shot like that is incredibly hard to do. People make livings doing just pour shots. Take a look at a menu at a place like Chiles or Applebees if you think I’m kidding.

Anyways, I managed to get a hold of a 4Chan moderator on IRC and have the thread taken down, after expressing my displeasure to dead ears of course. One piece of internet trash actually said “its the internet, fuck you, stop being such a bitch”. Apparently this persons never created anything in their lives. Having something stolem feels like shit. Something that you worked hard on taken, YOUR identity stripped out of it, and then its whored for all to take.

So, there you have it.

After all this time, and after all the energy and anger it take for me to deal with something like this I’ve come to a descision. If you can’t beat’em, join’em. Sometime soon, on the “projects” page, I’m going to put up several of my own versions of that wallpaper. My own versions, with a copyright line, my website url, the whole nine.

In the end, its a wallpaper. I’m not going to get bent out of shape anymore. I don’t have the energy. If anyone ever sees any of my photos anywhere, especially with a copyright taken off, please let me know. I won’t get made, I won’t start throwing around Cease & Desist letters, I’ll just ask them to replace the version they have with one WITH my info. People can use it all over the place, just so long as credit is given where credit is due.

Ok, I’m tired, I’ve stayed up too late already. Later guys.

Oh, and a HUGE thanks to Chip for the headsup today. I appreciate it bud. 🙂

Upgraded

Updated this journal to WordPress 2.0. Not that you could tell, since I kept the same theme. I also installed WP on SavvyNation, so, while theres nothing there in terms of content, you can check that out if it strikes your fancy.

I’m diggin’ 2.0. I like the ajax in the Dashboard. Very slick. The theme options seem much more indepth as well, in terms of customizability that is.

Oh, and thanks to Nagle for the new tag line ” A Highly Respected Piece of Binary Creme Pie”. 🙂

Fuck off Clark Kent

First off, let me just say that if ANY of you laugh at the following statement I will come to your house and turn your testicles into soup.

*ahem*

I went to an optomitrist today and my glasses will be ready at 2:00.

I HEARD THAT!

For the longest time, my left eye has been getting blurry by the end of the work day. It’s sore, it’s blurry, it’s hard to focus on things, I was getting headaches. I finally had enough. I went for an eye exam, something I’ve never ever done, and from what the doctor tells me, my left eye is as he put it “weird”. I have 20/20 in BOTH eyes. Better than 20/20 in my right. So much better in fact that my left eye struggles to compete. So, although I only have a 0.7% astigmatism in my left eye, it’s enough to throw off my vision in that eye because my other eye is so much better. So, basically, I have 20/20 and 21/21 and the 20 isn’t enough. I have a perscription for the lowest possible amount of correction as a “booster” to my left eye so that the two are even. I was almost about to call him a quack until he did the “which one looks better” test and, adding that tiny bit of correction really cleared up some of the fuzzy vision. I asked him, since I had no idea, what exactly the problem was that I had and he explained it as, if my eye was a perfect sphere I’d have perfect vision, but there’s a 0.7% deviation in the curvature of that eye that doesn’t nessisarily make things blurry but rather “stretches” them. When I view things with both eyes, that tiny bit of stretching creates a fuzzy boarder around a crisp image. The image itself is clear but that’s some fuzz AROUND it. At least, that’s how he explained it. So, now it’s official, I’m turning into my father. Someone shoot me.

At least I was able to get the exam for super cheap (thanks to a coupon) and 2 pairs of glasses for $99. They did their best to sell me on 2 pairs even though I told them I’d probably only be wearing them in front of the computer. After sales pitch after sale pitch I finally asked if sunglasses counted as a 2nd pair. Sure enough they did. So, I got a pair of designer sunglasses for free basically, because the actual frames I picked out where $89. They’re very, well, Matt glasses. Retro and stylish, kinda squared and long horizontal. I think they’ll be ok. The first case of glasses I went through were all the “old people” glasses, the big rounded lenses with thicker frames. I didn’t even try any of those on, I just kept handing them back and saying, “umm, no, I don’t think so”.

Oi. Fucking glasses. Damnit. I don’t want fucking glasses. According to the doctor, my other option was contacts IN ONE EYE. Umm, no thank you. So, I wear a single contact, in one eye, and nothing in the other? That’s friggin nuts. And, having watched Jason and Pete poke at their eyes every morning, contacts aren’t something I was very enthusiastic about trying.

*Sigh*

Does this mean I’m getting old… or am I just catching up to the rest of you? 😛

Ok, enough talk about glasses, it’s already starting to bum me out.

I’ve gotten my Flickr account up and running. You can check that out here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/docholoday/

I’m going to be sticking a Flickr sidebar thingy over to the right in the next day or two, so you can check out new photos as they go up. I’ve already added Chris as a contact, I thought Nagle had some Flickr stuff too but can’t seem to find him on there. Anyone else use Flickr that I can add to my contacts?

One last thing before I go, I just wanted to say good luck to my brother-in-law Chris, who at this very moment, is driving across i10 to Orlando Florida to begin his Disney internship. He has to work at the park durring the day but he gets to take all kinds of crazy Disney-licious classes and stuff when he’s not. Jake is going with him, so, hopefully the two of them can keep each other out of trouble… or at least stop short of molesting Cinderella. Have fun boys!

Lost… puppy?

Not quite the four legged variety but a dog none-the-less. It seems I’ve managed to completely misplace a graphics card. Not like they have occasion to get up and walk around, they seem to like their warm little cases, but one has disappeared regardless. It’s not my current card. No, if that disappeared the authorities would already be on the job. I lost my last graphics card. The duel DVI 4800GT that I planned on making into my living room HTPC along with my old ATI All-in-Wonder TV tuner card. That too has disappeared. I think they’re in on it together. Probably took off for Mexico, the fuckers.

I was piecing together my 2nd system again, in an attempt to make a storage system for myself and a server for various things (bf2, hl2ctf, etc). I suppose it would technically “work” without it, but whats the fun in that.

Anyway, the point is that I tore the house apart looking for it and I couldn’t find it. That makes me a bit angry. That’s all. Just expressing my anger in a constructive way… which is very unlike the “unconstructive” version that involves a baseball bat.

Better than Flickr?

Ok gang, here’s the deal. I’m completely in love with my new camera. It’s fast, it’s sexy, it’s feature-packed, the quality is fantastic. One small problem. Coming from a “I use giant memory cards at work” standpoint, I take A LOT of photos. I figure, your average family get together will probably be 75-100 shots. Having fun with friends, probably even more. Now, that’s not a bad thing… but what is bad is that Flickr will only let you have 200 photos with a free account. I’m sure as hell not paying for one, so 200 it is. OR… is there another Flickr-like service that doesn’t have a restriction like that? Anyone know?

So, do I use Flickr and edit my photos down to, say, 10 per event, or do I find an alternative? What if I go on vacation and have hundreds?

Gallery is an option, but I’ve never gotten it configured quite right. Is it worth a shot? Chip, Chris, opinions on Gallery?