Thread "Happy 2022! General Discussion Thread" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 11:05PM, May. 6, 2022

Jason Moon wrote:
I believe it was over a political discussion. You know how heated politics are these days….
Chris is a really cool guy, he reminds me of you Ozone (with his art) how he works on a page till it looks perfect. I hope he posts often because he was far into his Brock Trueblood story on CF. The art just kept improving and improving.

Wow! I look forward to seeing it!
A ban for that sounds harsh 🤔

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I worked as a photographer for a party at a nightclub last night. It was pretty rocking! I hate clubs but working in one is different. Security people actually defer to you and are nice 🤣🤣
I wore a mask all night because I was worries about CoVid… A black guy in a tuxedo tried to ask me out, I'm not sure if he realised I was a man or not though 😅
I realise I can be a little androgynous with my slim figure, long hair and tight clothes. So it's a mystery!
Either way I'm not dating right now 😅

Posted at 2:05AM, May. 7, 2022

@Ozoneocean you always get into the most snazzy adventures. XD

Meanwhile these little guys are eating up all my time for now. Did I say little? They're still just 3.5 months old.

Posted at 2:05AM, May. 9, 2022

Naughty creatures XD

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I've been using Photoshop since the mid 90s and I just discovered something new by accident! Haha!
You can turn off layer masks by holding the shift key and clicking them. I never realised that before… It means colour fills wont be bound and will just cover the image.

Why would that be useful when you can just as easily delete the mask?
Well if you have a lot of layers with masks (shapes that work as borders for example), it could make them easier to find on screen… just by turining the ask on and off.
It can give you a look at what the fill will look like over the entire image, without deleting the mask… I don't know, there aren't too many uses really

Posted at 11:05AM, May. 9, 2022

I envy you. Trying to use layer masks leads me down a path of confusion. I rely on as few layers as I can get away with and if I'm going to actively work on them, they had all better be working the same way.

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After a few months of posting in vertical format I find it has some definite advantages. The best is that the reader gets to see the panels in the order intended and not six or more at a time, so you can have a reveal at any point. Or to put it another way, 'our chief weapon is surprise'.

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 11, 2022

Been experimenting with the vertical format but most comfortable with a traditional page. I hate scrolling. I do almost all my comic reading on my phone and I hate scrolling.

From 955 page views to 14 in two weeks. What a roller coaster. Just can't keep readers. Nice while it lasted and now I have keep myself away from guns and sharp objects for awhile so I don't do anything drastic. (Being facetious, I love my misery too much to attempt suicide. Crazy people often have fatalistic sense of humor about their own mortality, especially if they just keep surviving potentially fatal incidents)

Posted at 9:05AM, May. 11, 2022

Ironscarf wrote:
I envy you. Trying to use layer masks leads me down a path of confusion. I rely on as few layers as I can get away with and if I'm going to actively work on them, they had all better be working the same way.

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After a few months of posting in vertical format I find it has some definite advantages. The best is that the reader gets to see the panels in the order intended and not six or more at a time, so you can have a reveal at any point. Or to put it another way, 'our chief weapon is surprise'.

Its a format I have mixed feelings about. There's definite advantages but I also find the more traditional page method wotks better for my work flow. I gues it also makes for more regular updates,

Posted at 9:05PM, May. 11, 2022

Elon Musk has unbanned Trumpetbum from Twitter…
How silly.

If I still used FB and Twitter I'm sure it'd all be full of opinions, rage, and glee. I don't miss that. I'm far too easily emotionally swayed by stuff. That nasty news about the abortion ruling in the US would have cause a storm I'm sure :(

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Who else has managed to avoid CoVid-19 thus far?

Posted at 9:05AM, May. 12, 2022

Genejoke wrote:

Its a format I have mixed feelings about. There's definite advantages but I also find the more traditional page method wotks better for my work flow. I gues it also makes for more regular updates,

There's a definite price to pay in terms of interesting page layouts, unless you lay out a traditional page and then split it for vertical posting as well. Even then, wide panoramic panels just don't work with vertical and those are some of my favourite things.

Ozoneocean wrote:
Elon Musk has unbanned Trumpetbum from Twitter…

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Who else has managed to avoid CoVid-19 thus far?

Fake news! - or at least, I don't think it's happened yet.
Not me, I had a nasty dose of Covid at the beginning of the year, but I don't regret it. It's improved my singing voice no end for some reason.

Posted at 6:05PM, May. 12, 2022

Ironscarf wrote:
Fake news! - or at least, I don't think it's happened yet.
Not me, I had a nasty dose of Covid at the beginning of the year, but I don't regret it. It's improved my singing voice no end for some reason.

So you're singing like a boy soprano now? XD

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 13, 2022

Not quite! More like a cartoon frog who's acquired a new waistcoat. 😆

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 13, 2022

Ironscarf wrote:
Not quite! More like a cartoon frog who's acquired a new waistcoat. 😆

Just be careful driving.

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 13, 2022

Something I've been thinking on…
Because of what's happening in Ukraine people are saying tanks are "obselete" - Urkainian soldiers are able to kill Russian tanks with anti-tank weapons.

It goes to show how stupid people are.
A javelin costs over $250000. A T-72 Russian tank costs about $500000 to a $1.2m.
That's incredibly inefficient! Considering the tanks can have multiple uses, can hold locations, defend, attack be used for communication, peacekeeping, protecting troops shelter, etc and be stored for decades and still work well.
While a javelin can only kill a single vehicle and nothing else and only if they haven't got decent active protection or troops that know how to protect them, unlike with the poor Russian conscripts. And the Javelin can fail, miss, and can't be stored for too long without a lot of servicing.
The NLAW AT weapons are much cheaper ($30-$40k), but it seems to take at least 4 or 5 of them to kill a T-72, and they have all the other disadvantages of the Javelins.

I think I'd rather have modern tanks (with a properly trained and motivated force operating them), than super-dooper expensive devices that makes Lockeed Martin and SAAB shareholders massive profits…

Since those weapons systems are being provided as aid I've a suspicion they're costing a LOT more than the usual price.

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 13, 2022

Ironscarf wrote:
Not quite! More like a cartoon frog who's acquired a new waistcoat. 😆

hello my honey..

Posted at 9:05AM, May. 14, 2022

Just the right level of cynicism there ozone.

I'm curious how Finland joining NATO will affect things, given how Ukraine looking to join it was part of the catalyst for the war.

Posted at 5:05PM, May. 14, 2022

The Russian tank factory is closed. So no more new Russian tanks. Wonder when they'll dig out the old stuff because there's nothing else left?
Should have sent the old stuff to begin with and saved the T-80s for the victory parade.

Posted at 9:05PM, May. 15, 2022

Genejoke wrote:
I'm curious how Finland joining NATO will affect things, given how Ukraine looking to join it was part of the catalyst for the war.

Sweden too. Makes me worried… :(
Although Russia doesn't have the same history with them as being recently a part of it so maybe that idiot Putin won't be as obstreperous.

bravo1102 wrote:
Should have sent the old stuff to begin with and saved the T-80s for the victory parade.

True. They were wasted.
I really think the issue is with the soldiers more than the hardware. It really brings to light the problems with conscription. On one side you have highly motivated people trying to protect their country, and on the other it's a force of young idiots who're badly trained and don't want to be there. Very Vietnam…

Posted at 1:05AM, May. 16, 2022

Ozoneocean wrote:

True. They were wasted.
I really think the issue is with the soldiers more than the hardware. It really brings to light the problems with conscription. On one side you have highly motivated people trying to protect their country, and on the other it's a force of young idiots who're badly trained and don't want to be there. Very Vietnam…

I'd say very Vietnam. Exactly like the ARVN. Even at its worst some things in the US military in Vietnam still worked like the USAF and Navy. The PAVN never sunk a frigate or cruiser.

Posted at 7:05AM, May. 16, 2022

bravo1102 wrote:
Even at its worst some things in the US military in Vietnam still worked like the USAF and Navy. The PAVN never sunk a frigate or cruiser.

The difference there is that Russia has had conscripts diluting the ranks of all their forces with crap for a looooong time, while I think the US only had really heavy conscription push during the Vietnam war (and earlier wars and national service etc), but the normal command structure would be a lot stronger because of all the career soldiers?

I imagine it only got really bad when they had heavy pushes to replace losses, which would have been mainly in the army and or marines?

Posted at 8:05AM, May. 16, 2022

There were career soldiers who chose retirement or early out rather than Vietnam a second time or even a first time. Then there were those who kept going back. So you had senior NCOs but not junior ones so they had the shake and bake sergeant right out of basic. An extra month of training and up to E-5 as opposed to three years of service experience. So much of the leadership was immature and impulsive. Led to incidents like My Lai and other atrocities. Some units were worthless like the Americal Division and others remained high quality to the end. Units with good reputations and histories did their best to maintain them, like airborne, Big Red One, Armored Cavalry and the Marines. The Marines never really had the influx of conscripts and those they did get volunteered for the Marines and then Marine basic training was such that Marines maintained high morale and just being able to take it because that's what Marines did.
But by the end of Vietnam the Army was a shadow of its former self. It would take the rest of the 1970s to get it back into decent shape. The end of conscription actually helped with that as did some great leadership from General Creighton Abrams.
The Air Force needed better training and a new generation of aircraft but not the overhaul the Army did.

Posted at 6:05PM, May. 16, 2022

bravo1102 wrote:
There were career soldiers who chose retirement or early out rather than Vietnam a second time or even a first time. Then there were those who kept going back. So you had senior NCOs but not junior ones so they had the shake and bake sergeant right out of basic. An extra month of training and up to E-5 as opposed to three years of service experience. So much of the leadership was immature and impulsive. Led to incidents like My Lai and other atrocities. Some units were worthless like the Americal Division and others remained high quality to the end. Units with good reputations and histories did their best to maintain them, like airborne, Big Red One, Armored Cavalry and the Marines. The Marines never really had the influx of conscripts and those they did get volunteered for the Marines and then Marine basic training was such that Marines maintained high morale and just being able to take it because that's what Marines did.
But by the end of Vietnam the Army was a shadow of its former self. It would take the rest of the 1970s to get it back into decent shape. The end of conscription actually helped with that as did some great leadership from General Creighton Abrams.
The Air Force needed better training and a new generation of aircraft but not the overhaul the Army did.

Thanks man, that was really interesting :D
I wonder if I might use that sort of knowledge in my Pinky TA story… Maybe adapt it and use it to inform the sort of world I have.

Posted at 1:05AM, May. 21, 2022

Even though I've quit most social media I'm STILL seeing stuff about bloody Amber Heard band Johnny Depp!
Espey Google News, which has a stupid algorithm vthat just keeps on showing you more of what you've already seen in a sort of pointless circular fashion… It's the worst news service.

Anyway, the only thing I take away from Amdep is that they've both got huge fat faces now.
Biiiiig blobby fat bloated faces.
Usually a sign of alcohol abuse unfortunately.

Posted at 9:05AM, May. 28, 2022

So I'm in the middle of working on another album. I've made a couple demos of some of the songs that'll be on it. I plan on making more soon.

Groundhog's Day
Saturday Morning
War Inside My Head

I'm also working on another song for a different future album. It's not fully mixed yet and I don't have any vocals so far, but this is what I have currently.

Plain Jane (Incomplete Mix)

Posted at 6:05PM, May. 28, 2022

Soooo, a couple days ago I decided to redo a story I'd never finished and start posting it on the Duck. About the same time I left a note on my Facebook saying if anyone wanted to contact me to contact the wife. I logged out and am staying away. Then I go to this thread. Hmmmm… similar social media opinions. I see mentions in the forum of people being banned from sites that shall not be named. While having never been banned I HAVE exited a site, leaving behind a piece of my mind, never to return. Coincidence? I think not.

Posted at 4:05AM, May. 29, 2022

i was never really a fan of web 2.0.
this is basically the only place I interact with people online over the years.
I haven't used facebok in about 8 years. I listen to youtube while I draw and use Tik Tok a lot but I don't have an account cuz its controlled by the ccp. Also rumble sometimes because of the sensor ship.

I'm waiting for the day when we can discuss things again without the hysteria.

Posted at 9:05PM, May. 29, 2022

elektro wrote:
Plain Jane (Incomplete Mix)

I'll try and give it a listen later man

Unka John wrote:
Coincidence? I think not.

Yup!
It just gets too much. Overload

lothar wrote:
i was never really a fan of web 2.0.

I'm waiting for the day when we can discuss things again without the hysteria.

Ugh, same. Web 2.0 was so badly managed. Facebook has always been strictly amateur hour. Embarrassingly bad coding from the very start.
The hysteria will never end.