For those loyal readers, you may have noticed that the site was down for a majority of the day. Though I may have averted a domain loss earlier this year, my domain is hosted by a friend of mine who was unable to pay his hosting fees. Thus, when his site (http://www.otm-comics.com) went down, mine went as well.

Through some collaboration and money exchange, all of our sites are back online and active (at least until November 18, which is when his next dues are to be paid). Let's hope he's learned his lesson!

So I was watching a Martin Short comedy special (Let Freedom Hum) on TBS with my mom - who is deaf, and I noticed something in the closed captioning: TBS was cleaning up the language of their performers. At first, I thought the person typing the captioning was just a slow, bad typist (and they were) - but I did notice that, consistently, the captions would replace "unclean" words.

Although I wouldn't be ok with it in any case - it's especially dumb to do so in a comedy special, as sometimes the pun or story doesn't make sense without the right words in place. Here are some examples of the replacements I caught:

"What a jackass" = "What a weirdo"
"He would be drinking" = "He would be bringing"
"I got hair above my ass" = "I got hair above my butt"
"What the hell kind of trade off is that?" = "What kind of strayed off is that?"
"Good thing I have the hair above my ass" = -omitted-
"My ass looked good in those pants" = "My butt looked good in those pants"
"He comes waddling out" = "He came out"
"Men and women, how did we get together" = "How did we get together?"
"You could not handle testicles" = "You could not handle Tess"
"Are you with a whore?" - "Are you with a --"
"I could fart in that store" = "I could fall in that store"

Just plain funny:
"Our next comic" = "Our next economic"
"Tufts of hair" = "Toughs of hair"
"Everyone dreams of being a successful stand up" = "Everyone dreams of being a suck es"
"I thank god every day for the gluten in my life" = "I thank god every day for the flu gluten in my life"
"Warranty" = "Warrentee"

First off... is it that hard to find a typist that can type captions without falling behind (and just skips material to catch up) or who doesn't type so fast that the captions go off screen before any normal human being has time to read it? I noticed about halfway through that the first typist must have gone off duty, because the second typist was much faster.

Second... what is TBS trying to do by censoring the captions? Not only does it exclude the deaf community from what is actually being said - the entire purpose of captions, but it doesn't protect anyone. Anyone who needs to be shielded from the offensive remarks (which were few and far between) would have been under the television rating (TV14) anyway - and even then, hearing children watching the program would have heard the remarks.

So, then, why is TBS censoring the captions? It makes no sense to me, but perhaps the higher ups at TBS would care to explain it to me (and my mom) sometime.

Minor Announcement

ActualBlizzard was in danger of expiring this Saturday and I've been unsure as to whether I should go through paying for a new lease or letting it expire. Obviously, as evidenced by the title, I chose to extend AB's life by a year. It's anyone's guess as to whether this was a good decision or not. Let's hope it was for the better!

Hey everyone...

Sorry for the huge delay in posts. Truth is, I haven't found anything of interest to write about! (Yes, I realize a lot of things have happened this month. That doesn't, however, mean that I feel like writing about them )

These past few weeks I've been subbing at Lowell Middle School, getting some middle school experience (and pay!) before summer starts - unfortunately, there's only a few days left. (Speaking of subbing - apparently high fives are out, fist bumps are in, keep that in mind when you're interacting with GenConnected) Subbing is cool, though not knowing whether I'm going to work until 6 AM the morning of kind of sucks.

ACEN 2009 (AnimeCENTRAL, www.acen.org) was awesome - I actually own two manga (Scrapped Princess, sadly, is not among the two I bought). I bought Zyword and Threads of Time... Zyword was.... a little jumpy in my opinion. I'd give it a 2.5/5. I haven't started the other yet.

Majora's Mask was finally released for Virtual Console. Had some trouble getting my SD card to work on the Wii, but finally got it downloaded. Of course, something else had to go wrong afterward: my Nintendo 64 to GameCube controller adapter stopped working in the middle of the game. (I paused to get lunch, came back, and the controller wouldn't respond).

Spore still hasn't come back from EA. It got damaged while I was at school (because I'm stupid and don't put my CDs back in their cases)... so yeah. I sent it to EA to be replaced ($16 vs $60... you make the call) and then contacted EA to see how long it would take to be returned... they never replied. I'll just have to wait another week or two and see what happens.

You've read that correctly. I intend on developing a comic, of sorts, as I have reintroduced myself into the world of art once again. (It's amazing what a little free time will do for the imagination!) Below is the (temporary) cover page for Volume 1, Chapter 1.

Pre-FAQ FAQ
How many chapters do I intend on making?
Six.

How many volumes do I intend on making?
I intend on completing one. Whether I continue is beyond me at this point.

What is it about?
Well, it's an epic story about... (information removed).

What will the art style be?
I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from Japanese manga for this, so that's the style I'm going with.

How will it be read?
Though some people are trying to convince me otherwise, I would like for it to be right to left versus left to right.

Why April 15?
Don't know. It could be earlier, it could be later - I just needed a day in the near, but not immediate, future. Though the image may claim otherwise, I do not guarantee anything regarding April 15.

Are you ALREADY replacing this website with a comic website?
Nope! This section of the website will remain the same, the comics will appear at http://comics.actualblizzard.com.

Can I see the picture already?!
Sure: