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.

Remember, my new credits can be seen on every episode, as well as another surprise coming up soon. Keep watching.

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…