You were always so far away, even when you lived under the same roof. You had your walls, your shields. Your world was your own. I thought you of you as brave, as invincible. I was a child, and you were a man. You left us all behind, and I thought you preferred it that way. You rarely reached out to us. Rarely spoke. I always thought that some day there might not be such a rift.

So alike, you and I, but so different. I read your words now, after you are gone, and see myself. The same hope, the same reluctance, the same pain when things are not right. But you never let us know. I always thought you were the strong one. The invincible one. Not so.

Your world was crashing far away, and no one knew. You lived in anguish, and we were unaware. You were too proud to reach out for help. In the end you were alone, but you didn’t need to be. It was a cell of your own construction. You locked the door from the inside, and none of us could come in.

All that is left are scraps and pieces of a life I do not know… and I wonder why.

Maybe it’s the creative core in me that wants to help out fellow creators, and allows me to appreciate the work, time and skill that went into a piece of work. A recent piece, (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar, by Felicia Day and the cast of the Guild is one such piece (among many).

While I am not a fan of poppy trendy music, I found this video amazing. Why? Because it parodies that genre of music most of us love to hate (and some of us hate to love), while at the same time making a statement about online relationships, and contrasting being sexy with being an absolute geek. All of this layering leads to an Internet gem, that is expanded upon by the high production values brought in by using professional equipment.  The video quickly rose to #1 on iTunes music video list.

All of this made me proud to be a geek. But there’s another side to this Internet beast…

Proud as I am of the Guild’s achievements in the world of Internet fame, I’m still frustrated by the idiots who troll the net. In fact, to call them idiots is a compliment. As a creative myself, it hurts me to see  the amount of destructive criticism anything put on the Internet receives, especially when it’s something so well made, and so relevant to the target audience. Especially when these comments are made by people who contribute nothing themselves. How sick is a person that produces next to nothing, and tears down anything creative that does emerge?

Next time you see something you love on the ‘net, make a point to post a favorable comment. We creator’s live for that kind of thing.

Below are three brief synopsis’. All of them would be fun to create, so I need your suggestions (If anyone actually reads this thing…)

1. Rembrandt the Mighty: The tale of a peaceful Aardvark people brutally attacked by their evil lizard neighbors. Only one of those villagers escapes slavery. A young child who will grow up to be the hero of his people.

2. The Adventures of Sir Pollywock: A hopelessly addled knight, and his surprisingly competent squire adventure in a world of high fantasy and humor. Sir Pollywock refuses to see just how incompetent he is to the eternal frustration of his poor associate.

3. Myth: An epic world ruled by epically flawed gods. Myth is the tale of a god who suffers a the cruel punishment of being made mortal. Will he survive as a human and learn compassion for his fellow man, or will the experience crush him?

Pages from all of these storylines can be found in the art gallery.

Please send your vote to me or vote by posting a comment below. May the best storyline win!

View the finale on MSN!

Rock Band 2 on the Wii has practically all the features of its XBox and PS3 versions. Character customization is there (albeit a little less than on the other systems), tour mode is there, and DLC is there. The best new thing by far: It now supports all the instruments from Guitar Hero – both 3 and World Tour. That was what sold me. I could now have both games without spending hundreds of dollars.

Gameplay is great. I never played the first Rock Band, but I had always heard that the career progression was superior to Guitar Hero. Now that I’ve played it, I mostly agree. The use of special events to add some interesting dynamics to the game keeps things interesting. My only gripe is that the random setlists the game makes for certain events often feature a combination of easy and hard songs that don’t seem to go together.

My recommendation to Wii owners aren’t sure what to buy between the two – I’d definitely get both. Just buy the Guitar Hero band kit and the Rock Band 2 stand alone disc.

I proceeded downstairs to tell the employees how much of an idiot I was, and that I hadn’t seen the sign. Fortunately, I didn’t feel as bad as I might have, because they didn’t even know the alarm had been installed. It had apparently been put in the night before, and no one had told them. Unfortunately, that also meant none of them knew how to turn it off. The alarm continued to blare for about 5 minutes as they looked for a key or something to shut it down, and then it stopped all by itself. No one knows why…

The truth: it was a piece of cake.

The doc took longer preparing and talking to me than the whole process took. When he finally got started he shot me up with novocaine, got some pliers, and yanked the darn thing out. It broke in the process sine it was so weak, but he just pulled the other part out too. Next he stitched it up and put some gauze on it until the bleeding stopped.

I was prescribed pain meds for once the numbness wore off, and antibiotics to prevent infection. I was fully expecting for a painful weekend, but it turns out that the only day that it even felt like I needed any pain medication was the first day. After that I’ve been pain free, but a bit swollen.

This Thursday I get the stitches removed… ooooo.

When the series was first released I ignored it. I figured it was another mainstream game that would bore me, and would probably get worse and worse as the series continued. I didn’t even touch the game until way after Guitar Hero 3 was released. My introduction to the series was through a freeware PC clone called Frets on Fire. Frets on fire is a guitar rhythm game you play with your keyboard, and you can add custom tracks to. I loved it. I noticed as I looked around for new tracks that most of the forums I frequented were full of users who wanted the game to be more like the Guitar Hero genre they loved. This sparked my curiosity. I did a little research and found that there was a port of Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock for the PC. I had found a purpose for my economic stimulus check. Hurrah!

Just this week the new Guitar Hero World Tour was released. It’s a game I’ve been drooling over for months. While the reviews are mixed as to whether GHWT or Rock Band 2 is the better game, my choice is clear. Since I currently only own a Wii, I haven’t even thought about Rock Band 2, and I probably never will. I’m not into the whole idea of stripping out features, because you’re too lazy to make it work right. Sorry Harmonix, you had your chance with me, but you lost me at that. Not to mention I really enjoy the art direction of GH over the somewhat bland RB style.

While I have yet to play the game that should change tonight. My two player bundle pack (two guitars and the game) is set to arrive! I thoroughly look forward to enjoying it.