Below are the 7 most recent journal entries recorded in mettech's LiveJournal:

Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
3:18 am	continual updates as promised: frequent updates! this post: entirely with merit or substance! absolute mediocritude! you learn nothing! you lose time! come back soon! Try Koala Pole with feather for sublimated anxiety! Current Mood: horny Current Music: My Chemical Romance (Comment on this)
Friday, August 20th, 2004
11:47 pm	KISS fans are really messed up, Part Duh Just for shits and giggles..here's a transcript of a sometimes funny, sometimes bowel-rending dialogue between myself and a dipshit KISS fan who you may recall, I was involved in an eBay dispute with...he is in italics. Because his worldview is slanted. I'm in bold..because I'm so bold. How fucking clever of me. 8/06/04 1:23am Dear seller, I want the item to be shipped to Romania in eastern Europe as a gift. I will pay via paypal. 5713795550 Nokia 3650 (AT&T Wireless) Aug-05-04 Thank you, midnightmadness2003 8/06/04 8:52am Hi, just got the auction notice this morning, and your questions as well. Unfortunately, as stated in the auction, I only ship within the United States. If you are in the US, I can ship to you, and then you can re-ship the item. I hope this is satisfactory. -Mark no reply from him, and I write again... 8/15/04 Dear midnightmadness2003, Hello, I have not heard from you for several days. I have given you ample time to decide what you wish to do and reply to me. At this time, I can only assume that you do not wish to buy the phone. It was stated on the item page that shipping was for United States only. I recognize that you have a very good feedback record and I would not want to unduly ruin that, but if you do not wish to follow through with your purchase, and do not reply within 24 hours, I will have no option but to leave negative feedback for this transaction. Sincerely, ratnikh6dfn 8/17/04 12:12am Dear ratnikh6dfn, Look here dude I dont know who you are or what the hell you are selling . I did not bid on whatever you are accusing me of I told you someone stole me idenity and was trying to rip me off and I found out about it through ebay and paypal so I am sorry it happen to you but you just need to relist it and sell it to someone whpo whats to buy it for real . And dont even try to negitive feedback me because I will have ebay paypal and the fraud protection on you like you wish you never had . I HAVE TOLD YOU I DID NOT!!!!!! BID ON WHATEVER AND AM SORRY SOMEONE DID THIS TO YOU BUT GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON SHIT HAPPENS ATLEAST YOU HAVENT BEEN RIPPED OFF LIKE I HAVE AND PAID FOR SOMETHING AND RECEIVED NOTHING YOU HAVENT LOST ANYTHING AND I HAVE SO GOOD LUCK AND HOPE THINGS WORK OUT FOR YOU STEVE 8/17/04 8:46am Dear midnightmadness2003, I never got any mail regarding a stolen identity or fraudulent bidding, so I was unaware of any improper activity. All I knew was that I had a Buy It Now bid on my item, a request on 8/06/2004 to ship it out of the country, (which I refused to do). I then gave a vey generous amount of time to smooth out the situation, knowing that oftentimes communication via e-mail can be misunderstood or slow. While I fully understand your anger and will work with you to correct this situation, I wish you wouldn't use such harsh language or threats, as it looks bad for everyone involved. I've taken the time to review your feedback and bidding patterns, and I can see that it is very obviously not you who bid. This email of yours is the first I have received since the person who stole your identity asked me to ship to Romania. So I hope you can understand why I was "out of the loop". I thank you for your time and patience, and hope everything works out for you. Sincerely, Mark ratnikh6dfn 8/17/04 11:53pm Dear ratnikh6dfn, thankyou and i am sorry that this happen to you and hope you can understand that it is scary when you are contacted by paypal and ebay to tell you why your account is messed up. It never happened to me before and it sucks ! I am a truely honest person and would not do something like that to someone so I hope you understand. steve luber 8/18/04 8:33am Dear midnightmadness2003, Steve, I understand completely. I once had my bank account stolen, and lost thousands of dollars, so I can relate. I'm putting up neutral feedback stating that it was a case of stolen identity that has been fixed. I hope everything works out for you. Sincerely, Mark 8/18/04 7:49pm Dear ratnikh6dfn, mark why would you put any feedback at all I bought nothing and dont even know what you are selling I have let feedbacks go without respondind already in the past for people that even did me wrong on ebay if they were truthful and honest so why would you put something on my record that is not cool to see even thought it dont count but some people are funny and might not deal with you if stuff has happened even if what is said is true thanks and please just dont leave anything and i will do the same and that will be that sorry about what happen but I could not help what occurred. steve (if you are unfamiliar with eBay practices, it is important to note here, that feedback is a user-based rating system that helps keep buyers and sellers honest. By and large it works well, almost like a Wiki system. Positive feedback is glowing praise, negative feedback indicates grievances or fraudelent activity, and neutral is simply factual statements that generally don't slander the recipient, but state if something out of the ordinary happened.) I either declined to comment, or was busy counting how many periods and commas he didn't use. However, I had already left his feedback. His neutral feedback. It read: Was informed his account was compromised, bid was not by him. Resolved. 8/19/04 6:15pm Dear ratnikh6dfn, look here man I left nothing on your record as far as a feedback and have tried to help you out for what someone did to you and me so it is inbest interest to you to not leave anything as I did and then that way it doesnt effect anyone as then nothing ever happened. but if you leave anything on me then I am forced by you to leave a bad feedback since you are trying to ruin a purfect record for me. I told you I will help you recover your money just have ebay call me as I told you and I will get your money back from them because its not your fault or mine of what happened to us. I am starting to hate ebay more and more as time goes on this seems to be nbothing but a big headache the more I try to use it thanks steve At this point I've already gone back and recanted my neutral statement (or at least, put in a request through eBay to do so. However, he has to fill out a short email form in order to confirm it, which he obviously declined to do, since it's still there). He has also left a comment to my neutral feedback, which says, "Reply by midnightmadness2003: account idenity was stolen never bid on whatever sell is accussing me of" which almost repeats what I said, but with bad spelling. He then leaves me negative feedback... "did not bid on item told seller to not leave anyfeedback myaccount idenitystolen". Is this guy original or what? 8/20/04 12:21am Dear midnightmadness2003, Look, I tried to be real easy about this after you started swearing and (idly) threatening me. I'm a laidback guy. I'm also a nice, honest guy. Your account got hacked. I don't know how, and quite honestly, I don't care. But it affected me. It could have affected others. So I go the easy route and leave *neutral* feedback. If, amongst your peer-group that is taken as negative, that is not my problem. Neutral is neutral. Just a statement of fact. Now I've even gone so far as to recant my neutral statement. Still not good enough? Go ahead and leave me bad feedback if that's the kind of thing that will make you feel better. Get creative. Have fun. As far as I am concerned, this matter is closed, because I'm not feeling so nice anymore. I suggest that you drop it and get on with whatever it is that you do. Now you think that would finish it, wouldn't you? But no! He continues his descent into twitchy dumb-fuckery! In the meantime, I get an email from SOMEONE ELSE entirely, regarding this matter! He's seen the feedback debacle and saw fit to write to me about it. Amazing. 8/20/04 8:40am Dear ratnikh6dfn, Man, I see you had to deal with this punk midnightmadness2003 also. This person also bid on my phone, or the person who took his account did, whatever. You did the right thing leaving a neutral feedback and he give you a negative? what a mother f--ker! I wanted to leave him a well deserved neutral too but now I'm afraid this punk will give me a negative. If you want to file a complaint with ebay against his behaviour, I think I will too. I doubt they will shut his account down but this dude needs some warnings at least. So, I write back, and say... Dear dark_avatar, Hello, and thank you for your email. After several emails (far too many), I have closed this matter. I have no personal interest in filing any sort of grievance. I will let the process of natural selection weed him out of the digital jungle. He is far too ignorant, inept and insipid to last for long, and he won't need my help in getting himself into more trouble. I rarely use eBay, and so long as he doesn't write to me again, I'm finished with him. However, should he decide to push the envelope and continue to stir things up, I may get involved further. I would suggest, especially since he left you no negatives, that you do the same, and not allow him to get under your skin. After all, he seems to be little more than a child with a fetish for KISS and access to a credit card. In any event, good luck and thanks again for writing. -Mark That evening I get... 8/20/04 7:10pm Dear ratnikh6dfn, look here dude I tried to be the nice guy and told you everything that happened and how to make it right for you and me but you would not listen and you are not the only one that this person bid on stuff thruogh my fraud account but you are the one that caused all the issues everyone else just let it go and I left no feedback since I never bid or bought anything and they left no feedback because it was not me that did anything and they got their money back from ebay for what happened but you were an ass and made me look like the badguy when I tried to help you and advised you of the situation and never lied or lead you on about anything so what the hell is wrong with you > I am sorry for what happened but it is no big deal if you would of handled it like a normal person. there was like 15 bids this person did to me and you are the only one that was ignorant about it and was all uptight about some money that ebay was going to give back anyway so I hope yopu are happy now He tried to be the nice guy? Where? Did you see it? I must have blinked. Also interesting is his comment that "everyone else just let it go". No doubt because they valued their feedback and were afraid this twit might slander them, or stir up trouble for them. And I made him "look like a badguy"? Yah...that's like saying you've been called a criminal because the newspaper reported your house got broken into. This kids meds are either too strong or too weak. I suspect they aren't lethal enough. I've had enough. I wrote my final reply, and if I get another from him, I just might take "Dark Avatar up on his offer to file a complaint. Be great if I could get about half a dozen others who've dealt with him to file too. 8/20/04 11:46pm Dear midnightmadness2003, If I gave a fuck what you thought, that might hurt. But I don't care. Your ceaseless dumb-fuckery is no longer amusing to me. Now go away and play with your KISS toys. And there you have it...the whole ball of wax. I hope. -MT (Comment on this)
12:04 pm	Oh, and another thing...Poser If you haven't used the program Poser, from Curious Labs, my advice would be "don't"... Although the concept seems really cool...rendering photoreal people, in any way you choose to, the reality of it is quite another thing. I'm not sure what exactly, but it's something else. The interface itself is odd...the "let's let you put anything anywhere" style, coupled with the "streamlined buttons and rendered pictures" control scheme is not the easiest to acclimate to. The sheer NUMBER of buttons, sliders, rendered gizmos, roll-outs, drop-downs, and overlays is quite stunning and astounding. Within a few moments of using the program it is apparent that this is not a simple point-and-click, drag-and-drop system for beginners. The moment you start to manipulate a 3D figure's anatomy to set a pose, and see his limbs twist and become grossly misshapen, you realize that something is horribly wrong. Funny, but wrong. This is a program that is aimed at mid-level 3D artists, which is odd, because someone of that level is most likely going to be using a mid-level renderer/modeler such as Carrera, Truespace, Rhino, etc, and therefor won't want Poser for rendering. Not only that, but beyond Poser's ability to pose figures, its rendering, texturing and lighting is extremely limited, slow and cumbersome compared to dedicated mid-level 3D packages. It's forte, supposedly, lies in its figure rendering/posing/animating...but these can be excruciatingly cumbersome and time-consuming. Also, it is somewhat pricey (about $200), putting it out of range for most beginner 3D artists, or as a supplemental tool, and too limiting as a standalone 3D package (having no other modeling capabilities). Importing and adding content also isn't simple. You have to learn the structure of Poser's nested directory system, which sometimes can run as many as five to six deep, and any one model or figure might use up to four or five different directories, each of THEM then going several deep. And each portion (figure, clothes, textures, accessories, poses, etc) must go in the appropriate folder. Also, clothes, poses and accessories are rarely interchangeable between figures, as they each use their own, non-scalable proportion information, which sometimes you CAN edit, but may take longer than is worth attempting if you don't know how to create figures from scratch. Which, if you could do, why the fuck are you wasting time on Poser? By way of example, I set out to create a female figure and pose her in a super-hero(tm) action pose as a comparison/guide for a 2D drawing I'm working on. Though there is a fairly large selection of pre-made poses, none were quite what I needed. I opened up my sketch as a background, behind the 3D female figure. Poser has no provision to allow me to rescale my background, however, so I was stuck trying to move their figure around and match it to my drawing. Poser lets you choose to set limits on range-of-motion in limbs, making it nearly impossible to get nice extreme action looks, or set no limits and get oddly stretched, twisted and distorted anatomy. Why? Because it only "skins" the figure. It doesn't take into account that bones, muscle and connecting tissue all work together. It only knows where the skin is, and roughly, where things bend in a human body. This leads to very odd looking figures. For example, as you bend the forearm , the bicep doesn't know to bulge, and the joints don't fatten/expand, leading to skin intersecting skin, or oddly lifeless forms with no bulge or taughtness in the muscles. Furthermore, getting the right height, weight body proprotions and muscle-tone was no easy matter, with anywhere from five to twenty sliders PER BODY PART. And with only one level of "undo", mistakes can be very frustrating. After spending a couple hours trying to get a Matrix-esque pose (a la Trinity's floating Bullt-time(tm) kick), I decided it would be easier to simply go back to sketching and re-sketching. I used the tried-and-true method of standing in front of a mirror to visualize difficult perspectives and proportions and that worked just fine. Poser, in short, sucks. I'll admit, I got a slight thrill at the idea of being able to render photorealistic women in any variety of poses and degreees of undress (all the way to nude and anatomically correct, yah baby). With plenty of time, a very well written manual (their own is far too basic) and many tutorials, no doubt the program can make for some good 3D figure art, and I've seen some that is very impressive. But anyone who is serious about making photoreal 3D people really ought to be working on creating their OWN 3D figures, and not playing Barbies in poser, which is very limiting. And without a separate rendering program, all Poser can do is render figures in a void, or on whatever photo backgrounds you have. So really, it's a tool for making people for other 3D programs, and not a very good one. With programs like Caligari's Truespace 6.6 for $500, and Eovia's Carrara 3 at $400, both of which are very good entry- to mid-level renderers, spending $200 on Poser seems a waste. Unless you just want to manipulate 3D naked chicks. In that case, there are virtual-reality porn programs real cheap that will do much better. I think. At least, so I've heard. -MT (Comment on this)
11:53 am	Serenity teaser from Comicon Seen it yet? I finally managed to download it, and I was honestly less than overwhelmed. Not underwhelmed, exactly...just...whelmed. I'm glad the movie is coming soon, and I'm looking forward to what it could mean for the life of Firefly, but in and of itself the teaser trailer was just...plain footage. Mediocre editing, bad color/contrast matching, and too many high-speed jump cuts. Also, it had the look of a fast montage of season 1 clips, at least in terms of style. It says little, and says it quickly. Of course, I'm not sure what I was expecting either. It's really far too soon to see big CGI sequences, explosions or other effects (other than practical effects anyway), but I guess I was hoping for something that said a bit more. This struck me as mostly a way of saying, "See, I told you we really got everyone, and see, we're actually doing Firefly-ish stuff!" Which, I guess, is cool in its own way, but if I'd gone to Comicon specifically to see this trailer, I think I'd have been bummed. -MT (Comment on this)
1:10 am	aww hell damn, and double-damn!! ...I was going to put in a couple of my current drawings-in-progress, but apparently LJ won't host them, and I don't have any hosting at the moment (at least non linkable).   Oh well. Wasn't anything great anyway. Just more of my CoH artwork, which is nearly done and send-in-able. Umm..that's all. Go back to whatever it was you were doing. Hey, not you...zip up and go wash your hands. Freak. -MT   Current Mood: aggravated (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 19th, 2004
9:04 am	eBay Sucks and KISS Fans are Really Messed Up Holy crapballs, does eBaying ever suck. I only wanted to sell a god-damned cell phone for some extra cash to buy computer equipment, and I got caught up in some Identity Theft drama. I go through the process of getting photos of the phone, and all the myriad accoutrements going with it. I grab a whole crapload of info from the manufacturer site and assemble it all into an HTML page to paste into the eBay listing. I go through about twelve pages of eBay interrogation about my item and end up spending about $15 to attempt to sell the damn phone. I also put it a "Buy It Now" option on the phone, knowing from the past that this can slightly increase the odds that the item will sell. Not even two days later, someone Buys It Now, and I get an email via eBay mail relay from the buyer, "Dear seller, I want the item to be shipped to Romania in eastern Europe as a gift. I will pay via paypal." This, despite the fact that I've stated, inthe auction, that I'll ship within the US only. Hell, I don't even like to ship to Hawaii or Alaska. I'm all about the contiguous states, fuck the rest, when it comes to shipping. Romania? Hell, no. So I tell the guy, look, don't know what you were thinking, but you just paid $250 for an item I can't/won't send you. If you have a US address to ship to then we're good to go, otherwise cancel your bid and we're done. This is on 8/06, and for 10 days I hear nothing, so I write back one last time stating I've been more than generous, given him plenty of time, and will soon leave negative feedback. Days go by. I'm all prepped to leave some scathing, ego-destroying feedback when I get a message from the buyer. The message content goes from clueless, to angry, to threatening and then works through various combinations of the three. Incredibly bad spelling, poor grammar, and, halfway through, ALL CAPS, are the hallmarks of his missive. Here is a portion: "And dont even try to negitive feedback me because I will have ebay paypal and the fraud protection on you like you wish you never had . I HAVE TOLD YOU I DID NOT!!!!!! BID ON WHATEVER AND AM SORRY SOMEONE DID THIS TO YOU BUT GET OVER IT AND MOVE ON SHIT HAPPENS ATLEAST YOU HAVENT BEEN RIPPED OFF LIKE I HAVE AND PAID FOR SOMETHING AND RECEIVED NOTHING YOU HAVENT LOST ANYTHING AND I HAVE SO GOOD LUCK AND HOPE THINGS WORK OUT FOR YOU ST*V* " [SIC] (name altered to protect the ignorant) At this point I got a bit worried. Not because I feared the sting of eBay and "fraud protection", but because I realized at this point I was dealing with a complete loony. And, also, that not only would I never see my $250, but that I was out the $15 I paid to place my item. Through several follow-up emails, I gleaned that his account had been stolen. He'd bid and paid for items he hadn't received (rough justice of a sort, from my POV), and that he was an insanely rabid KISS fan, and most likely lived in his parents' basement collecting dolls, stickers, plates, pleather jackets, and other KISS memorabilia. I quickly realized that he probably did NOT bid on my phone, and that the person who stole his account was most likely- *gasp* from ROMANIA! (This probably ties in to the Romanian women's gymnastics team somehow, and their bid to get Olympic gold). We seemed to straighten things out, and all seemed sort of well. I then left him neutral feedback, stating that because of trouble with his account someone bid on my item but the problem was fixed. He freaked out. Asked me why on earth would I do that. People are gonna freak out when they see that. I caved in and said fine. Removed the feedback. Done. I'm never fucking using eBay again. eBay is a magnet for rabid-collector freaks whose only measure of self worth is the amount of Dukes of Hazard ashtrays they have, and their feedback rating. Oh, and KISS fans are completely fucked up people. I don't what kind of subliminal messages the music has, or if they just have some sort of vibe that attracts emotionally-damaged and socially inept people, but it's uncanny. I'm not saying that liking one or two of their songs means you're fucked (but really, take a good look at yourself and get an outside opinion if you have any doubt). I'm talking about the people who have more than three items with the KISS logo on them (aside from actual albums/tapes/CD's), or pictures of the band's crazy clown faces. If you are even considering the purchase of a lunchbox with Gene Simmons on it, or an Ace Frehly Bust for your livingroom, or a set of KISS sheets for your futon, SEEK HELP NOW. Claiming it's an "investment" just makes it worse. (Can anyone point out three people who are laying on private, tropical white-sand beaches being served margaritas by tanned naked people, who made their personal fortune by investing in Beanie Babies, or Star Wars action figures?) Of course, the last laugh will be on me when in the year 2015 KISS fans buy eBay, Google and all the major telecommunications corporations, all get voted into public office, and make KISS merchandise the national currency. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 13th, 2004
4:05 pm	Finally, damn it... Alright, well I'm finally gonna put something in here. Been how many weeks since I created the account? Anyway...been spending most of my time doing home repairs, and the rest of my time doing artwork and playing City of Heroes. I'll write a little more about City of Heroes (CoH) later, since it's definitely worth talking about. I'd like to do some writing, and some music too, but I have a hard time spreading my creativity in too many directions currently. My artwork lately has revolved around fantasy/role-play themes. I've been doing comic-style characters from CoH, as well as characters and maps from pen & paper RPG's. Most of my work is done on the computer. I use Photoshop and a Wacom Intuos2 9x12 tablet. I do traditional media too, mostly pencil and sometimes pen & ink. If I get the motivation I might post some work in a gallery. That's all for now, got stuff to do...but I'll put in more soon. -mt (6 Comments |Comment on this)