First of all, we’ve got a guest strip up over at Sam and Fuzzy!

Second, bandanas will be in the Applegeeks store on Monday! ^_^

Third, we’ve been confirmed for Katsucon! That’s in February … we’ll be doing a Photoshop Panel there, so maybe you can come check us out.

Fourth, we are going to Magfest. That’s January 13-15th. We’ll be selling some merchandise, but I expect much of the weekend is going to be gaming madness.

Microsoft employee Rory Blyth:

“I think IE is horribly behind the times. When every other browser on the planet that’s worth a damn supports tabbed browsing, it’s just crappy that I still have to have different copies of IE open to have multiple sites open at once.

As of right now, my favorite browser on the planet is Apple’s Safari.”

Also, we did a guest strip for Sam and Fuzzy. I hope his readers likes it. Sam, if i ever get the chance, I’ll do a full color fan art for you.

So today, I’ve got two links for you.

First is the transcript of a speech given by Courtney Love at the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference.

Second is what amounts to a response from the RIAA.

Now, take a look through each one. In Courtney Love’s speech, she carefully cites precise values and figures, allowing us to get a real understanding of the numbers involved. In the RIAA’s “response”, the only figure bordering on precise numbers are percentages … keeping things vague so people are kept in the dark. But hell, it’s so transparent. It’s almost funny!

The comic is up.

I know I haven’t been really active with my postings lately. This week has been really crappy. For the past couple of days I have been waking up with an itching feeling in my throat. Also, my eyes has been hurting a lot, which gave me headaches.

I still feel like crap, but I have to go to work soon. I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful new years.

(thanks shannon!)

I spent most of the weekend with Shannon and her family, for Christmas – it was good fun. ^_^ I also did something this past weekend that I hadn’t in a while – played video games. Two, specifically.

The first was Mean Bean Machine (which I think is the repackaged American release of the Japanese game Puyo Puyo) … an old one, but always fun. We got through about 10 stages before taking a break, although Shannon did the last few – so she got some hardcore practice in and pretty thoroughly crushed me when we went to VS. mode, haha.

The second game was one I hadn’t gotten to take a good look at before – Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I’m going to go on a tangent here,

Now, there’s a reason Applegeeks isn’t a gamer comic … it’s because we (or at least I) are often way behind the curve on games. Barring a few RPGs and other games that I will snap up at the moment of release, I tend to be a pretty casual gamer. I only have a PS2 at home, and if I have an XBox or Gamecube game I really want to play, I will borrow the system off of a friend. There’s a Dreamcast in my house too, but I haven’t touched it in years, and I’m giving it to Shannon in the hopes that she will put it to better use. My point with all of this? Don’t expect to hear anything new or particularly illuminating out of what follows … I am what some would call a casual gamer, at this point in my life. I used to be very hardcore, but work and other things have taken precedence over gaming for the time being.

So yes, way out of the loop on video games. I watched Shannon play Splinter Cell for a while, and it’s an awesome game. It’s very remiscent of Metal Gear Solid to me, with some very visible differences that have to do with the people spearheading the projects. Hideo Kojima has always been known for his flair for the dramatic, the cinematic, and the slightly impossible or improbable. Tom Clancy’s touch, on the other hand, firmly grounds Splinter Cell in a gamer’s concept of reality, and that realism adds a certain grittiness to the game. As Shannon tells me, there is no Foxhound in Splinter Cell – the “levels” are more mission-based, and aren’t usually punctuated by a fight with any sort of boss. In the end, I think I will always like Snake better as a protagonist (although that power mullet made it hard), but Sam Fisher has some moves in his repetoire that are waaay too sweet. Addendum: Shannon also wants to hump the holy hell out of Sam Fisher.

Speaking of Snake, I’m still trying to figure out how MGS4 will work with him as an old dude … more curious than ambivalent. And I think Sam Fisher is a prisoner in the upcoming Splinter Cell game? What’s goin’ on here?!

Favor for a friend,

My friend George is trying to track down an artist named Emily Gregg. She had a website up between ‘96 and ‘99 called something like “My Pathetic Website”. It had a lot of FF7 fanart and fan-comics, and then got a little darker as the years wore on before its shutdown in ‘99. George has done all the ‘net research, and believe me when I say you won’t turn up anything on the intarwebs that he hasn’t found already. What I’m looking for is someone who can put him in touch with Emily Gregg in real life. Instant messenger SN, e-mail, or just let her know that she is being sought out and pass her my contact info. According to George, there are certain parties that wish to catch up with her, as she was an artistic influence upon them.