Logging into Live Messenger today I was greeted with a message informing me that a new version of Live Messenger is available.  Without hesitation I clicked the download link and waited for the download to finish.  I unchecked all the unnecessary addons like the gallery feature, mail, ect.  All I want to do is talk with a handful of people online.  That's it.  Even so it clocked in at 68 MB or so.

Once finished it signed me into Messenger.  I instantly noticed that the "signing-in icon" spun a bit faster, but it really didn't seem to log me in any faster.  After waiting a few seconds I was finally signed in and saw the new Live Messenger:

It's odd how it feels like I've gone days, almost weeks without writing a blog, when in reality only 3 days have passed.  But those 3 days have been quite important, to me at least.  For starters, I'm currently a news/content writer for the website 360evolved.com.  Overall it's nice to write again for an audience that actually cares about gaming.  I've had a GamesPress account since 2005(I think), so when I left Game-Spectrum it became rather useless.  Well, it now has a use.  I've also subscribed to a crapload of RSS feeds to keep me up to date on everything, mainly 360-related.  One thing that really bothers me is that the site is really slow, especially when trying to publish something.  I was told the site was a bit wacky from the get-go, but I was hoping it'd improve over time.  Unfortunately it hasn't. 

Also, I've got news on DamnStraight.net(which appears to be down) finally.  Well...I have some news, but I unfortunately can't disclose it.  Lets just say that if this thing actually goes through, it could be epic.  I can tell you that it'll be game/technology related.  More information should be on the way sometime soon, possibly this week.

I've also created a gamerDNA profile for the hell of it.

I have a Twitter account.  I don't know why, I just do.  It's sometimes useful for the latest news from a few websites, but other than that I don't use it much(despite having almost 500 updates for some reason).  I don't know anyone personally who uses one, just a few online friends, but even they rarely update their status.  I've had an account for sometime, thinking the fad would eventually pass and I could let it fade away into obscurity.  However, sometime late last year/early this year, something...happened.

I don't know what exactly happened, or how it did, but Twitter became mainstream(or pretty damn close to it).  I started hearing about it more and more on sites like Digg and Reddit(Top 10 Twitter tips! was a common story I'd see), then I started seeing it on the news.  While a bigger audience would be great(including actors and athletes, who have already jumped on board), I couldn't help but feel the inevitable getting closer and closer: greed.  What I mean is that I kept waiting for the day where my Twitter page would display my usual contact updates with an ad or two in between.  And that day just got one inch closer.

I saw a tweet from someone linking to a site called Magpie.  Basically, you get paid to post advertisements from certain companies at a given rate.  According to the website I can make 16 pounds/week(what is that, $22?).  I can shamefully say it seemed tempting.  $22 a week to do basically nothing but annoy my fellow followers?  Sure!  I projected myself into the future and figured I would lose any worth-while followers, and only be followed by people exactly like me.  Eventually my Twitter page would be filled with nothing but ads.  And thus Twitter is ruined.

Sorry Magpie, your evil temptations won't suck this costumer in.

You know, this might just be the first ever "re-blog" ever written.  By re-blog I mean reposting an older blog I've previous written, much like a re-tweet.  Anyways, I thought I'd update you all on this old post:






Alright, first thing's first: We haven't gotten far.  We're still at the Inivison(Free) board, which really isn't all that bad to be honest.  As far as I know, the domain will be thexaxis.com.  Creating the layout/design of the website is proving to be unpossible(yes, unpossible).  What does Exo want exactly?  That's the million dollar question I guess.  He didn't agree with the first layout, and I really have no idea on what he thinks of the newest one(or if he's even seen it yet).  I might send a PM to every old school Xbox.com forum member I can think of, telling them about the site and who it's members mainly consist of.  Even if just 2 people join it'd be nice.

Excitement grew to desperation, which then grew to anger and loss of interest.  This is how I stand as of now.  We need a miracle to make this happen.

 1.  When typing a title for this blog, the cursor automatically jumped down to the text box in the middle of typing.  I don't want that.  I want to type the title, then click in the text box to type my blog.

2.  After hitting delete, I want GMail to display the next message in my inbox, NOT go back to my inbox.  Every other email client goes to the next message.  GMail fails hard here.

3.  On Twitter, I want a button next to each users tweet giving me the ability to re-tweet it.  I also want a quick edit button.  Having to delete an entire tweet because of one minor spelling mistake is very annoying.  While I know proper grammar isn't required, it's annoying to read spelling mistakes.

4.  More privacy.  I'm seriously considering becoming an internet shut-in.  Deleting my Facebook, YouTube account, making Twitter private, no longer commenting on news stories, ect.  The easiest thing to do to make sure your information isn't made public is to simply not upload it.

5.  Stop opening IE, Live Messenger.  I already have Firefox open, use that to direct me to Spaces or Hotmail(which I don't even use anymore).

6.  Age verifcation has gotta go.  If it stays, it needs some tweaking.  Such as getting rid of the month and date boxes.  A simple drop-down menu consisting of years will do.

7.  Email verification has gotta go.  Make better captcha systems or something.  I'm sick of having to wait for a damn email verifcation from a website I signed up to use, sometimes for just a one-time thing.

8.  "Faster.  Must go faster."

Well, I'm still a Rogue Angel in Tribes.  So far the fun factor has sort-of worn off a bit, but it's still fun.  Like I said before, swooping in on an unsuspecting enemy is quite the thrill.  One thing I'm running into is having my kills taken from me at the last second.  And I mean last second.  I'll be in striking distance when my guy completely explodes or collapses due to another teammate killing him.  But, I suppose I deserve this because I do the same exact thing.  I'll often see two guys going at it, and when the enemy's health gets low, I swoop on in for the kill.  It's certainly a dick thing to do, but hey, it's Tribes.

Anyways, 'The Big Three" is a reference to three websites that might be launching around the same time.  Though, it's more like "The Big 2 and a Half", because one of them is a website I'm not very active at(though I do visit it everyday).  First we have, as always, Xbox-Alternative v.2, though I guess I should start calling it TheXaxis.  I'm actually getting tired of writing about its launch, which I thought would be sometime earlier this month.  God knows when it'll be now.  Each update seems to say the launch could happen anytime now, but weeks go by before we hear about it.  I've given up asking for any updates, and my excitement for the whole site has dropped dramatically since I first heard about it all back in September.  Even though it's the wrong time to worry about such things, I'm not entirely sure how he'll mange to pull it off, finacially-wise. 

Then we have Damn Straight, which moved about a foot closer to...well...I'm not sure, today.  The site is up, and there's content, but I don't think it's what James has in mind for a final product.  All of his reviews, previews, editorials, ect. have finally been transfered over to the site.  It took a week, which is pretty long for just transfering articles.  But it's done.  We briefly talked today about the site, and he asked what I thought about making the site like Penny Arcade.  Now, believe it or not I've never been to Penny Arcade.  I've seen maybe 5 of their comics and that's it.  He mainly wants to have 3 or 4 posts on the main page, with links to everything else either on the top or sides(or both).  WHEN this will happen is up in the air.  Like XA, I've given up asking when things will get done. 

And finally and certainly least we have Zanative.  Zanative is a forum full of (ex?)DigitalPh33r fanboys.  You see, DP had a forum back in July of 2008 that was the main place to talk about his work, while at the same time obsess over DigitalPh33r himself.  Height, weight, moles, dimples, shoe size, sibblings, sexual orientation.  These were all very common-and creepy-thread topics on the forums.  Needless to say the forums were shut down, and the community made their own at Zanative.  It's a temporary place until the new site launces in Feburary(or so we've been told).  I'm not uber excited like everyone else is, but it's still nice to see them all sticking together.  It's actually quite humorous how almost everyone hates Jon(aka DigitalPh33r) now. 

And that's about it.  Time for some Trix.

Today turned out to be both spectacular and horrendous.  Yesterday I received 256MB of RAM.  I've read the tutorials and watched the videos.  This seemed like a very simple thing to do.  I popped off my computer casing a day or so prior to see how everything looked.  While it certainly wasn't easy to get to, removing and placing in a RAM stick should've been possible.  I suppose I should back up and admit I've never installed RAM, or anything physically into a computer before.  I know very little of the inner workings of a computer, so I was a bit nervous, even with something as simple as RAM.

Anyways, yesterday came and the RAM arrived.  To the computer I went, with all the tools necessary for such a project(my hands).  A few seconds into it and I knew this wasn't going to be fun.  Whoever decided to put the RAM under the floppy drive, making it almost impossible to reach, rot in Hell motherfucker.  My hand is full of tiny scrapes from trying to maneuver the RAM stick in place.  The bottom half was fine.  It was the part under the floppy that was the pain.  Unlocking the old one was one of the biggest pains of the project.  I won't tell you how long it took to replace the RAM, lets just say it was "long". 

Now, we actually have to step back a few...hours before going on with this story.  Since the floppy was my main obstacle I though about simply removing it for easier access.  So I unplugged the first cord, then the other, and pulled.  Nothing happened.  The side of the floppy was rubbing against the power box.  It really didn't matter how hard I pulled, it was just creating more force against the power box.  I said screw it and eventually got the RAM in through various hand movements.  I put the casing back on(floppy still not re-attached), plugged in the power cord and keyboard and started her up.  I got a black screen that told me it did indeed read the new RAM, which was a relief.  I was worried about static discharge.  However, it told me there was no Primary Master Drive.  It read the DVD drive, but nothing else.  It suggested I either press F1 to continue or F2 for setup.  F1 did nothing, neither did F2.  I pressed the Numlock and Caps Lock keys to be sure the keyboard was indeed working, and it was.

I thought, perhaps, plugging back in the floppy would do it.  It was the only thing left to put back together, so what the heck.  Back to the work station I went and attempted to re-attach the floppy.  Since it was such a tight squeeze I couldn't plug in the pin-out cable.  The larger one went it in just fine.  Hours and hours of using needle-nose pliers only resulted in a cramped hand.  If only I could take the floppy out, it'd make things 100x easier.  But I really didn't want to mess with the power box, plus I really wasn't sure how it was secured in.  So now what?  I have no precise idea why it's not working, and I could only think of 2 people to contact for help.  Unfortunately they live about 40 or so minutes away, and I really didn't want them to come all the way over here for something that might be a simple fix.  Another big obstacle I ran into was light.  I wasn't able to see what I was doing without a flashlight, but unfortunately all the ones in our house were dead.  So, I went to my last resort.

On the other hand, this is our only computer.  Once my parents found out it wasn't working, they called one of the 2 who was fortunately in town at the time.  He came over and I showed him the screen.  He was puzzled at first, which oddly enough I found reassuring.  He then looked in the back and saw that the keyboard was actually plugged into the mouse port.  He corrected it, pressed F1, and it worked.  I felt like the biggest dumbass on Earth at that point.  I was assuming it had something to do with one of the drives, not a plug error.  He also got the floppy back in, which did indeed result in having to remove the power box.  Stupid design is stupid.

So I now have a noticeably faster computer thanks to a mere additional 256MB of RAM.  What have I learned?  Never even think about messing with the insides of a computer again.  Ever.  I won't even think about it.  This entire ordeal was a huge pain, and seeing as the solution was a mere cable correction only added salt to the wound.  I will now crawl into the fetal position and cry.                                                                         

Well, I'm thinking about going back to a blogger account(blogspot.com).  These Live Spaces don't offer shit for widgets and add-ons.  I mean, I like the layout options, but compared to Blogger these Spaces are a joke.  It's crazy to think I've written 46 here.  For a service that isn't that great you'd think I'd have less.  Or I might just choose a completely different service altogether, but Blogger is pretty well-known and supported, so finding widgets and such is a breeze.  I've dabbled with other services, but found them all to be quite boring and really didn't help me, audience-wise atleast.

That's the big thing for me-having an audience.  If DamnStraight ever gets "big" I might have a few readers at most, but I'm not expecting much.  It'd be nice if I could transfer all my previously written blogs over to Blogger without having to post each one individually, but after doing a quick Google search this seems to be impossible.  In total I've written a little under 400 blogs since I started back in 2005.  I have 362 saved, but more have been written that I wasn't able to save in time due to...technical difficulties. 

If only I could find the XML file for this Space...

For a while now, one of my legal guardians wants to move the computer back into our living room.  This wouldn't be such a huge project if it weren't for our fairly big(and heavy) computer desk.  It's quite large, roughly 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide.  Depth-wise I'd say it's about 3 feet.  And we're not talking about cheap, flimsy plywood.  This is real, actual wood we're talking about here.  Thankfully the top half comes off, but it really doesn't help with the weight.  Most of the heavy stuff is on the bottom half.

This isn't to say it can't be done.  It can be done because we've done it countless times before.  It originally started in our basement back in 1998 and since then moved back and forth from there to the basement so many times I've lost count(ok, maybe 5).  It's a task I should be used to by now but the mere thought of moving everything again isn't too pleasant.  We also have a huge-ass printer I'd have to bring upstairs as well.  Moving everything isn't set it stone, just an option that one of them wouldn't mind having.  I much prefer where it is now because the computer is quite loud at times, and adding in the annoying sound of typing is enough to drive anyone crazy. 

We also have another option that at least two people in this household agree on(one of them being me):  Moving the computer back about 12 feet, flush against a wall and right next to an outlet.  1.) This would free up the extension cord we're currently using.  2.) The mess of cords would be..well, hidden from sight(even though no one really goes down there).  3.) This would take care of having to create a whole new outlet to ease up on the amount of cords, something my dad plans to do this Sunday.  4.) According to my calculations captain, I could be given access to Live-or at least Xlink Kai in my room.  Now, this is actually possible now...for about $100.  Since explaining our entire floor plan would be a pain, lets just say that having the computer flush against the wall would make things a whole lot easier for me.  I could simply send the Ethernet cord though the register and into my room, and voila.  Instant internet access.  Plus, a nice wired connection makes me happier than going wireless.

But, alas, there's a catch.  The other guardian seems completely against this.  Why?  I haven't the slightest clue.  One reason I heard was that it'd increase the cost of our internet.  Now, I haven't even mentioned Live as being one of my main reasons for doing this, so this reasoning is even more absurd.  Cost seems to be a major issue for this particular parent, and I agree.  Right now, times are rough.  That's why I wouldn't even consider this if it wasn't financially possible, and it is.  25' of CAT5 cable should do the trick, and how much is that, $20?  I just did a quick search and found one for $5 (though it's Belkin.  Haven't heard fantastic things about them lately).  I may or may not have to get a female-to-female connector as well, but those are only $2 or less so that isn't an issue.

It's just strange that someone would be against moving a computer back a mere 12', yet seems perfectly fine with moving it up another floor.  To me, the benefits certainly outweigh the cons, but I might be overlooking something.  After things cooled down a bit I really wanted to see what I was up against, so I started to measure just how much extra cord I'd need for everything.  Unfortunately someone decided to zip tie the extra internet cord onto a metal beam and piping, so I wasn't able to conduct my research.  My hands feel like crap now from trying to get the cord through zip ties without having to break them.  Not to mention I broke a small plastic bottle of cologne all over the floor, which really isn't all that bad to be honest. 

Time will tell if any of this comes to fruition.  I'm hoping that once we explain everything the other will realize that this isn't such a big deal after all.  It seems to be more of a "Why do you want to do this?" argument.  Ours will be "Why not?".

Earlier this week(Sunday to be precise), I stated that DamnStraight might just finally launch within the week.  Due to even more time constraints things have been pushed back slightly.  I still have no exact date for when it'll go live, but there are almost daily updates on the site from James.  The good news is that there should be even more reviews available than originally thought because James has received a few more products from publishers(mainly hardware).  So that should be a good addition.

I've also thought about giving this Space a whole new design.  While I really like the darker tone, viewing Sonic Alpha's Space has really made me think about lighting things up a bit.  Not only is it easier on the eyes, it also loads faster.  Now, obviously it won't be an exact mirror image of Alpha's, but the general layout will be similar.  I won't have nearly the same amount of boxes on each side, or at least not like his.  He's obviously a gamer, an up-to-date gamer to be more precise.  I'm sure I'll have a feed or two, probably my twitter box and a few other devices or widgets.

If you're interested, I'll also be posting 3 brand new Kill Zone 2 videos from the demo that's been making the rounds.  Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for updates.

These past few months have really made me think about where Web 2.0 is going.  For the longest time I've had a simple, daily routine of checking my inbox, catching up with friends on Facebook and watching social networking sites take over the internet.  But now things are suddenly changing.  My lovely Hotmail inbox(yes, I still use Hotmail) has now gone under the scalpel of an amateur, Facebook has been rearranged by Picasso himself, and the people in charge simply shut out the community that uses them.

It all started back in mid-September, when Facebook forced us to use the new layout.  Weeks prior to this we were able to use either the old or new format with the click of a button, which was nice.  I, and many others, preferred to use the old layout we were all used to.  Having that option was a good move by the Facebook team, but when they forced the new design upon us, it wasn't a pleasant experience.  Things certainly take a while to get used to, especially a new website layout.  I hated it from the beginning and never thought I'd grow used to it.  And you know what?  I still haven't.  This new layout is horrid in my opinion.  Nothing is uglier than the comment layout, which is a complete and utter mess.  And what happened to our beloved add-ons?  Oh, they've been put together in a new tab labeled "Boxes"...

People protested for a while but soon forgot about it and went on with their daily lives(this is all of America wrapped into one sentence, sadly).  It wasn't the fact that the layout sucked, it was Facebook taking away the option to continue using the old one.  Then we have the whole Hotmail debacle, which is still undergoing changes.  I've been a happy Hotmail user for 6 years now and have never had any real problems with it, and I still don't.  It functions perfectly fine after the "upgrade", but the new layout looks like a downgrade to me.  This was the general layout Hotmail users had been using for a good number of years.  Over time it's gone through a few graphical updates, but the basic layout has been the same.  Then comes early November when things suddenly changed.  As you can see, things are certainly different.  Mainly the left-hand bar.  Again, I'm not angry at the new layout, I'm angry because none of us have the option to keep using something we feel is better.  Microsoft has claimed that this new layout is superior because "they've listened" and made the appropriate changes.  Well, just because you feel it's better doesn't mean we want it.  At least not yet.

And finally we have Pownce.  I've never used Pownce, nor have I heard so much about it until recently.  From what I gather it's basically a site where you can share media with friends and organize events.  Sounds simple and harmless, and judging by the people involved(including Digg's Kevin Rose), it's got quite a large following.  Just 4 days ago it was announced on the Pownce blog that they would be shutting down their services and joining up with a site called Vox(another site I've never heard of).  The Pownce community is echoing what I've been saying all along: why?  Many users are asking exactly why Pownce is being shut down and forcing them to migrate over to Vox.  They aren't attacking either parties, but simply want an explanation. 

So far these are the only 3 that have come to my attention, but I'm sure there are and will be many more.  It's an unfortunate trend of those in charge not continuing to listen to community.  While their user base may have shouted for change, and they did so accordingly, they've for some reason stopped listening to what people think after they impliment it.

Last night, after dinner, I came back to a catastrophe.  All of my bookmarks and add-ons in Firefox were gone.  To make matters worse(and stranger), the back and forward buttons didn't work, nor did the status bar appear.  Each tab had that little circle animation as if it they were still loading the pages.  I spent quite a bit of time bookmarking each page I visited on a daily basis and customizing what add-ons to use and how to use them.  Starting all over again would certainly be a pain.

You'd think getting my bookmarks back would be quite simple, since I visit them on an hourly basis, but this isn't so.  As of now I only have about half of them back, and that's just from memory.  The other half...who knows.  I honestly can't remember every site I visit.  Now you're probably thinking "Why not just import the backups?".  Well, I'll tell you why.  Last night, when it first  happened, I went to the Mozilla forums to see what was going on.  I explained that importing my backups wasn't working, and I was still having problems with the back/forward buttons and such.  Creating a new profile seemed to do the trick, for the navigation buttons at least.  I still had to go in search of my bookmarks. 

After finally getting back to what I was used to(bookmarks, add-ons, styles, ect), things seemed to be back to normal...until tonight, that is.  Around 11:00pm or so the same thing happened again.  After opening Firefox everything was gone.  This time I really didn't want to start over again, so I made a decision: I would use IE.  I thought it couldn't possibly be as bad as people say it is.  I mean, sure, I've used it before.  It used to be the only one until I discovered Opera a few years back.  That was when IE and I parted and I haven't gone back to that bitch till tonight.  Man, what a horror show.  For starters, each page I went to bookmark was totally messed up, specifically Reddit.  The text was way to small for me, and zooming in turned the comments section into a disaster zone.  No amount of fiddling resulted in anything remotely close to what I'd call "acceptable".

Then came DamnStraight.net.  You'd think a plain Wordpress page would look fine, no?  Wrong.  Only half the gradient appeared at first.  Zooming in did help, but now the text bothered me.  Oy vey.  Page after page gave me more and more headaches, until I finally said "Fuck it" and re-downloaded Firefox.  I really didn't think it'd be that bad, since I still use IE every now and then on the computer at my dad's office.  Then again, that computer has a fairly standard resolution(1024x720).  This beast, however, is set to the odd resolution of 1152x864.  Hopefully re-downloading Firefox did the trick.  I'm still trying to fill up that bookmarks toolbar right now, but I know I'm forgetting some.

Even a simple option to use themes in IE would've made a difference.  Googling only gave me links to IE themes for Firefox, instead of themes for IE itself.  I also couldn't leave the bookmark names blank, like I do in Firefox.  A website logo itself is enough to tell me what site it is.  I don't need to know the name of it.  Clicking on the "home" button with my scroll wheel should've opened "home" in a new tab, like in Firefox, but it didn't.  So I had to manually create a new tab and enter in the URL.  Opening links to new pages really should've opened in tabs, but IE opens them in separate and annoying windows.  All of these things are what eventually lead me to abandoned IE and go back to Firefox.  I wasn't even using it for 10 minutes before giving up on it.  I'm sure if I stuck with it for a week or so things would get better, but there were just too many negative things about it within such a short time of use to keep me using it.

Goodbye IE, this time for good(other than the occasional use at my dad's office).

I meant to mention this in my Splinter Cell post but my mind got all caught up with ways of entering the damn embassy that I completely forgot about it.  DamnStraight.net, the site I'm supposedly going to write for, should be getting a graphical upgrade within a few days.  Possibly this week, perhaps.  I don't have an exact time on when the site will launch, nor do I know what I'm supposed to be writing/posting about it.  It'll obviously be games/hardware/entertainment oriented, so it shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

Visually it looks quite nice.  I don't have a link to the layout, but even if I did I probably wouldn't post it.  It mostly consists of your usual WordPress layout: a banner at the top, a menu below that, and then the main content.  To the right is a bar that has other options, such as categories to help navigate throughout the site.  There's a search bar and log-in box as well.  And that it's.  Again, plans are to upgrade the site sometime this week.  Whether or not this will be the actual "launch" of DamnStraight.net isn't up to me.  You can look forward to more than 80 hardware and game reviews at launch, however.  Heck, some of them might even be mine...

I know I don't have any readers from my old blog, so I'll state this again.  Here is my history of blogging:

"Yeah, I started another blog. This would be my...6th generation of blogging(technically). To those wondering what other blogs I've started and why I made 6 of them, all I'll say is this:

1. 2005: techtoday.Blogspot.com. All I wrote about were games and technology which in turn got me a spot at Game-Spectrum.com

2. Early 2006'ish: MySpace.  Ah, what an experience....

3. 2007: Game-Spectrum personal blog. Same as techtoday, only lamer.

4. 2007: LiveJournal. What a waste.

5. evanvolm.blogspot.com.  Decent blog, but due to technical difficulties it got deleted.

6.  evanvolm.spaces.live.com. This is currently where I'm at.

So why didn't I just stick with one? Well, since I started writing at Game-Spectrum I had no need for techtoday.  They basically merged into one another. MySpace was pure ownage and a fantastic experience, but I decided to delete it in mid-2007 due to personal issues. LiveJournal just wasn't my thing. I didn't like the design at all. The reason I deleted my Game-Spectrum blog was because I left GS in early February of this year. That's right. After almost 3 years I've decided to leave the site. But that doesn't mean I'm not part of a site! I've secured a spot at another site which is supposedly going live sometime soon. That's the plan, at least...."

The sentences in bold are the important part, but I thought I might as well throw in my blogging history as well.  I wrote that summary in March of this year, and I haven't had a site to write for since.  I thought I had a spot lined up, and technically speaking I did, however it was merely a wordpress layout without any graphics whatsoever.  No one really posted any news stories, either.  The man in charge was just way too busy to start a website, so it got put on hold...for a long time.  I needed a place to write, hence the creation of this Space.

Fast-forward to today when I get an IM from someone who was originally planned to work on the site way back then.  He says James, the man in charge, would like to start working on the site again.  Great!  James has a real bone to pick with the way the industry rates games(possibly media in general), yet I've never heard him state how he'd change it.  So, if you're interested, keep an eye on DamnStraight.net.

There's a series on YouTube called Arby n' the Chief, and it's one of my favorite YouTube series of all time.  It started out great, but now we're lucky to get more than 1 mediocre episode a month.  In any case, I've stuck with it.  The creator started off with just a blog announcing new episodes, but once he got noticed, he created digitalph33r.net, which is just a forum.  It consists of over 2500 members, with me being one them, and contains sections for each of the creators(Jon) works.  This includes an Arby n' the Chief, Deus Ex Machina, It's a Wonderful Live, DigitalPh33r's Guide to Making Machinima and Hard Justice forums, along with other forums such as off-topic and such.

It started out like any other forum.  People discussed Jon's latest work, while others posted thoughts on future episodes.  For a short while people were actually civil.  A Community Game Night was created, where forum members got together and played a few games of Halo 3 every weekend.  I really didn't care about community events since I don't have a 360, though.  All I really did was check in every now and then to see if a new Arby n' the Chief episode had been posted. 

Once Jon attained the standard "director" status among the community, he received criticism.  A lot of criticism.  People then asked personal questions about him, such as where he lived, his shoe size, his family, ect.  This has been going on for quite a while now, which is why Jon announced yesterday that he's shutting down the forums.  Oh the drama....People then started posting "refugee" forums, so they'd have a place to stay.  Since quite a few forums were posted, and the mods considered it advertising, they were quickly locked while the mod themselves gave out suggestions.

So, how does this affect me?  Well, judging by his announcement, closing the forums only sounds like the beginning.  He stated he'd be starting school again soon, meaning he'd have less time for Machinima.  Remember, he worked on more than just one series.  The closing of the forums means he'll more than likely stop making machinima, within the year would be my guess.  It's a shame, because it was such a great series.  It was full of all the dumb things we laugh at, while at the same time it acted as commentary on what's happening in the gaming industry.  As of late it has gone downhill, only with a few "good" episodes. 

When Jon wasn't contracted with Machinima.com, he made videos when he wanted, how he wanted.  I can't help but feel his deal with Machinima.com, along with the pre-pubescent community, hindered his motivation to continue making machinima.  So I guess this is a goodbye to Jon, aka DigitalPh33r, but more importantly it's a goodbye to his work. 

Like I stated in a previous blog, I'm now posting at Xbox.com again after a 3-year hiatus(of sorts).  I stumbled into the "Xbox.com, My Xbox and Forums" forum and saw a 7 page thread titled "Why do the forums suck now?".  Perfect.  A place to see people bash Xbox.com, something a few other people I known have been doing for quite a while.

At first I thought about going on a rant of sorts then forgetting about it all.  But then I thought I might as well write up a semi-logical post and see where it goes.  I must say it's getting pretty enjoyable.  So far everyone's fairly civil about it all, and we're actually participating in a debate of sorts.  One side favors the CUL(community user level), while the other thinks it's flawed.  I'm one of those who thinks it's flawed.  I've thrown out suggestions, and haven't recieved anything negative about them(some saying I'm spot on).  While the discussion brings joy I can't help but feel it's all pointless.  It'll either become locked by a mod or go completely ignored.

Only time will tell, as usual.  My hopes of actually changing things are quite low.  But it honestly isn't a huge deal, since it isn't my main forum.

I started playing Tribes again a few weeks ago, and I'm getting pretty good.  I can usually cap the flag a few times, get a few mid-air disc hits, snipe an enemy moving quite fast.  I'm no where near as good as the "pros", but I can usually score around 20 or so points in each game.  I'm also posting quite a bit more over at Xbox.com.  I never thought I would, but I found a page full of new, unanswered threads.  The very first night of posting there got me to a CUL(Community User Level) 4.  I'd been stuck at 3 for about a year, not that it really worried me though.

This new page is essentially what the Halo 2 forum was way back then, activity wise at least.  I can refresh the page, and I'm pretty much guaranteed a new thread to answer.  Mind you, the majority of them are for games I haven't even played.  But sometimes a quick Google search will give me the answer.  I got interested in my CUL after reading an old, old thread recently.  It's about 3 years old, and full of old Xbox.com members who no longer post.  Even though I pretty much hate the layout, I'm still going to post there.  I went into lurking mode sometime in 2005, and I guess you could call this my return.

I even got a few veteran posters to post at there recently, though I highly doubt they'll stay.  We've got our own community to worry about right now.