[428] amusing little enigmas

console

< Piro >

"catering to complexity"

Saturday - June 28, 2003

Quite a few people are a little confused by today's comic, and I apologize for that - but that was actually part of the desired effect. Unless you have paid close attention to some of the hints in the past, and have some familiarity with MMPOG online games, what Miho is talking about goes right over your head. It will make more sense as the chapter progresses - it's hard to have one character surprise another and provide ALL the missing details all in one strip. Piro is, of course, reacting to things HE knows and connecting the dots in HIS head... and some of this information you, the reader, doesn't have. As for the face stabbing reference, I'll refer you to this strip. The rest I'll let you figure out yourselves :)

As for the accusation that I am catering to the people on the forums who like to speculate about some of the deeper story threads in Megatokyo - fft, gimmie a break. I'm catering to the some core elements of the story and to people who like to have things to discover as they read or re-read the story as a whole. MT is like a big onion, and onions have layers. :P

One of the neat things about a webcomic is that they are read in three ways - when you first arrive, you can go back and read all the back issues. By reading many strips at once, you can get a grasp of the whole story much easier. Then, after you are caught up, you read the strips as they come out. Its fun to watch a story unfold, but frustrating too - many of the strips are in the middle of a story arc, and you are left pondering what happens next in the days between strips. Most people find this fun, I think, but some find it frustrating ^^;; Then, the final way that a webcomic is read is when people go back and re-read strips that they had read as they were released, and are able to get the 'flow' of the strip as I intend them. The dynamics of webcomics are rather interesting, and the fact that the nature of reading them changes I think is one of the fun things to tinker with.

Got a lot going on today, I was going to write a longer rant, but this will do for now. LOTS of things coming up, so be sure to check the rant column this week. :)

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< Dom >

"Pressing matters"

Monday - June 23, 2003

[Dom] - 10:30:00 - [link here]

You've heard about Fanime from people who are paid to do it. Hell, I wrote some stuff about it for work too. So this report is written entirely for my enjoyment. If you don't like it, well, it wasn't written for you anyway.

First: Greg Dean won't watch porn with me. He somehow doesn't believe that bad porn is meant to be shared and laughed at. But he's a hands man. Wait, no, I got that wrong. He's not a hands man, one of his fans is a hands fan, he just likes hands. Or something. It confused me but left me mildly aroused. Wait, no, that's just my phone on vibrate.

I want to marry into the Wang family. But the Wangs only had sons. Curse the Y chromosome!

Vaz of Underpower says that in the middle of my masturbation jokes and clowning around, I let slip two insightful comments during the Webcomics panel. I need to keep better control of myself. People might actually ask me for advice if I prove that I have some to give.

I had to borrow money to buy an MT book. This amuses me to no end. At least I got to give the book to Daichi, though. That was nice.

Lance Heiskell of FUNimation has a very stressful job. But at least no one is trying to lynch him for the infamous "Fruits Basket rap opening" thing, though.

I finally own a plush version of that hippo-rat-baby from Spirited Away. This also makes me happy. It's currently on top of my monitor next to the red Cthulhu and Death.

I have Hank Wong's approval to give out a cojones (it has been brought to my attention that what I was told was wrong, and the word is in fact cojones. So I've changed it. Again. People keep telling me different things when I ask if it's cojones or cajones) award at AX karaoke, to be awarded to the person who displays the most guts in going up on stage and singing. The current plan is that the prize will be a dice pouch (from Chessex, probably) containing two large Superballs.

The Japanese have kind of a smart idea. It's almost as comfortable sleeping under my Pretty Face jumbo towel as it is sleeping under a blanket, come summertime. I just wish my friends wouldn't look at me so weirdly in the morning.

"The heartwarming story of a boy and the 12 girls who are in fact the pets he had as a kid reincarnated as cute guardian angels", eh? I somehow think I'll pass on that for now.

Random House. Publishing manga. How random...

Alright, enough dilly-dallying, time for a 500-word review and then sleep... and maybe I'll fit in some actual recreation too... oh well. Two weeks to AX!