Messages posted by: Dragoniade

Oh and so far, look like 2 or 3 of the 5 disks have a bad head.

And while I was able to recover some data yesterday, one of the disk went bad, cause the whole restoration process to go bad and it deleted 3/4 of the backup!!!
So now, I'm not facing a lost of the last 2 months, I'm facing a total lose of the past years of capture.

A true entry domain SAS rack is about 1800$ WITHOUT the disk.

What I've been looking for was to put three of those (125$ each)

inside one of these (125$ too)

That's room for 15 discs. That's "only" about 550$, less than a 4U, but still somewhat some money. And that exclude the disks (I already have 7 x 500GB hard drive though).

But for what purpose really? With that misfortune, I've been reevaluating if I should keep archiving the video I'm working from.

I mean, every series that have TF or creature potential I'm making clip from, I have digitized and saved the episodes.
Before, I was burning them on DVD, but after gathering more than 200 DVD of material, it was starting to take room, DVD are unreliable in term of long term storage and are troublesome to get the data back. Especially when you have to go through 200 DVD to find the one that had the right episodes. I have them indexed, but it still a burden to work with.

So I moved to disk storage, but you better have a good setup if you don't want to face disaster like this.

But for what end?
Keeping video that I probably won't watch again?
For others? People aren't interested in trading episodes nor do I have the bandwidth (100GB cap) to broadcast what I have left and right. Especially with what it cost to maintain.

From now on, I'm more likely only going to capture the episode that had the TF, and ditch the rest.

Less trouble, less storage needed, less worries.

May update is finally online. That one was another big (and sometime boring) job to do.

This update has 264 new clips and 350 thumbnails has been either rendered or re-rendered, as from a few month ago, I've started to recreate the small 100x66 thumbnails to bigger version.

For the new versions of the site, I had those small one stretched to 150x100 and 320x240 to accommodate the new layouts. This is why some thumbs and previews look sharpers than other.
For example, this is a old one: Project Altered Beast and this one is a new one Martin Mystery. Each thumbs are saved in 3 resolutions: Native (the original size of the clip), previews (320x240) and thumbnail (150x100). So, for each clips, 3 images are taken and resized.

But, at least, this update has an higher transformation / show ratio and also include one of my favorite animated series . Guess which one it is.

All Dogs Christmas Carol
All Dogs Go to Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven 2
Broken Sword 3 - The Sleeping Dragon
Codename Kids Next Door
Codename Kids Next Door Operation ZERO
Enfant Qui Voulait Etre un Ours
Garfield His 9 Lives
Jane and the Dragon
Kid Paddle
Kirikou et la Sorciere
Kong
Krull
Kull the Conqueror
Land Before Time, The Series
Little Mermaid the Series, The
Martin Mystery (one forgotten clips, but the whole thumbnails remake)
Merlin The War of the Dragons
Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The

Yes, Kong was my favorite. The show had a lot of transformation into anthropomorphic characters, from dinosaurs, to tiger, to chimera, you name it. All giant anthro monster. A worth seeing to all anthro fan. Have a look a the griffin. Isn't he cute

I'm also pondering about running a 3rd contest for June. Those updates are really taking time, and for one thing, making the thumbs mentioned about, editing excel spreadsheets in order to publish those updates, sorting through everything aren't really the the most fun things to do. And getting pretty much no feedback, negative or positive, make the ROI rather low on the site. Some support back through another Dragoniade contest would really cheer the work a bit more.

Considering the results from the last one, I'm thinking applying the KISS rule. So a plain Philippe/Dragoniade transformation, maybe with a simple theme (outdoor, surprise!!,etc) with 3 bases prizes and participation prizes. First get 60$, second get 40$, third get 25$ and I would raffle among the non-winner and the sequence winner 5 prizes 20$.

I'll check the feedback to see if I should go ahead with it or not.

On a less positive note, I'm not sure I feel like helping anyone anymore. Or just being generous with online people. I feel like everytime I do, I end up being burned one way or another.

4 examples.

1-
Back in 2004, before heading to Anthrocon, a friend announced his computer was getting deprecated and he really need a new one. His couldn't run Doom 3 at the time and he wanted a PC that could. I had access to OEM materials and the CAN/US dollars ratio was really low (0.70 US for 1 CAN), so I could get him a system for about 15$ cheaper than from a store. He said it was fine, and before heading to the convention, got the parts, assembled it, and hand it to the convention. We agreed that he would paid me after the con, since he was a seller and the previous year, he said he had like 3000$ sold. But at the end of the con, all he could give me was HALF of the amount, about 400$ and that he woulds pay me in the months to follow. I agreed, since we were friends, but I had a bad feeling.

A year after, after having done nothing to pay me more than a 40$ commission, he tells me he had a commission from a great professional artists he was stuck with. Value: 175$ The person he bought it for declined, so he was with a commissions he couldn't pay for and he asked me if I could take it, in order to lower the PC dept. I was reluctant, because all 100$ and more commissions I had in the past were total disappointments. But he told me that person was a real professional and I wouldn't regret it. So I accepted... to learn a few weeks after that I needed to contact that artist and that he was living in California, only taking commission in person at conventions or through telephone. I was rather pissed, considering I live in Canada, am french speaking and trying to contact someone in the US would be a real pain. He agreed to act as an intermediate, calling him and meeting him during conventions with my info, then get the commission and send it to me.

Well, we're now in 2010, 7 years after the initial deal, and I still haven't gotten the commission, not paid back. The commission, 3 sheets of inked paper, was photographed together and mailed to me as a 'proof' it was done, but never shipped. And the remaining 200$, no sign I'll ever see it either. Last time I talked to the guy about his business practice, I got a FUCK YOU for not agreeing with them. So, helping this guy had cost me 375$US to learn NOT to deal with him, or his partners as he can't keep them, in the future.

2-
The second one started in 2004. An artist roommate and manager contacted me looking for cartoon references. His friends was mostly doing furry cartoon (Looney Toon, Tiny Toon, Road Rover, etc) fan arts, so reference would help him. I sent him quite a bunch of files and in return, he had his friends drew a Dragoniade Taur picture. Next year, he asked for more clips, saying he woulds do the same. Since my previous experience with him was positive, I agreed. Some time after, he came to me asking for some money to lend him to and that he would pay me back, either in cash or commission. Since he was one of the few to keep contact with me and actually gave something back, I agree. Time passed and, like all furries, took more than he could chews.

When he said he was opening commission, having shown to me what his friends has been doing in the past years since he promised he woulds pay me back, he asked me if I would add a commission too, in order to boost the original 55$ handed before and the clips. I now know I should have said "NO! pay me", but he had shown me his friend was working and getting better, so I said yes and added 45$ to it. Total, according to him: 45$ + 55$ +20$ worth of clips for a 120$ commission. But he is your typical furry, asking others to do their work and doing nothing back. Up to now, and I've gotten excuse like 'J had an accident and spilled the water for the painting on the commission', 'the supply are getting late and J is trying a new medium', 'J stuff are packed since we moved' and had gotten a lot of 'I lost my job, because I'm the best programmer and all non furries are idiot' (a typical furry excuse for being an ass and getting fired for it). So another 120$ and wasted time lost.

3-
Third one is about 'gift'. One things I've got a few time are booby trapped gift. One was from a 'friend', which I got a birthday gift in 2004, and, for the next 2 years, continuously told me he had a gift for me, on his desk, ready to be mailed... And I never got it. The same guy also, when I got a gift from a friend of both of us, went to tell that person I hated his gift. The gift in question was a furry gift, with content that wasn't safe for work. Not really my kind of stuff, but I thanked him for the gesture. When I told that friend about me not being the best gift, he told that person I hated it. Lets say that this didn't helped our relation between the 3 of us.

3.5-
One more recent was for Christmas. Someone contacted me, asking me what I would want for Christmas. I asked why and he told me he wanted to give a few gift for the holiday. I thanked him, saying that simply an art from him would be the best of gift. In good gesture, I asked him what he would like to get, and had his gift delivered. New year eve, and no word. I asked him if he had gotten my gift and he said he had. He also said he didn't had gift for me. Later, I realize he was simply fishing for gifts. Just like the other person.

4-
The last one for tonight was about a friend that needed some help. He needed some web space, I was able to put him in contact with an host. He needed some poses references (sitting, grabbing for an invisible tail, etc) for his drawing, I provided some. He told me he woulds get me a drawings for all the help I was giving him. Since we are friends, I didn't hesitate to do that. But now, all my commissions we planned in the past are on hold, each time I ask about the drawing, he gets elusive. But he gets plenty of quick commission by others and those get done. I guess doing work for a friend that helped is less important nor profitable than the current streak of commission.

Sorry for the latest rant, but I was holding on those for too long and I had to empty my bag. This time, I'll spare you the Brutal Beast rip off out of the set of other burned situation. But if you wondered why I'm so negative online and about furries, those are 4 situations that left me totally biased about helping a furries online.

Here's the latest version I just compiled. Just a plain find command on Unix.

http://www.shadowlordinc.com/Dragoniade/List20100310.txt (294k)

Well, I've seen a few people doing it and since I've been asked, I guess I should jump into the Christmas wishlist bandwagon.

Original transformation arts of myself: http://www.shadowlordinc.com/character.view?Character.Id=7737

Dragoniade Portrait: http://www.shadowlordinc.com/character.view?Character.Id=409 http://www.shadowlordinc.com/character.view?Character.Id=7434 http://www.shadowlordinc.com/character.view?Character.Id=7435 http://www.dragoniade.com:8081/Dragoniade/

DVD from movies, shows, etc containing transformations, dragons, dinosaurs, orca, dolphins NOT on the following list: http://www.shadowlordinc.com/Dragoniade/Dragoniade-DVD.txt

Transformation or Dragons books not on the following list: http://www.shadowlordinc.com/Dragoniade/Dragoniade-Books.pdf

Ultra M923 ATX Black Full Tower Case ULT40125 http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?sku=ULT40125

morwalugi wrote:"a pile of dust surrounded by catapult stones.

One word: Epic!

Mind you, I am not quitting. I'm only taking a break before *I* end up breaking up.

I'll still be working on the site, just concentrating on stuffs that are less alienating.

I would like the site to maybe become the next transformation list, since the old site hasn't been updated in ages, with a search engine allowing anyone to search for transformation information, in book, magazine, media, etc. Not just clips.

Here's the conclusion of the last update with the upload of the clips from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. This update also introduce a new format for the site.

From now on, all clips will be uploaded in either 2 formats. The classic AVI with a MPEG-4 Part 2 video Codec / MP3 Audio Codec and the new MP4 with a MPEG-4 Part 10 / Advanced Audio Codec (AAC).
If you're having difficulties playing this new format, I suggest you try installing ffdshow-tryout http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/ and Media Player Classic Home Cinema http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

On the other hand, I have some thoughts about work since last week. I can classify works in two categories: handling and service. Handling are jobs that have someone build or construct something, like a miners collect coal, welders crate structure, artists create drawing, fishers bring fish. In the other hand, you have accountants, lawyers, archivists, librarians, etc, which don't produce good but provide services. The site fits more the service type, while artists fit the product one. But over the time, I've felt the handling one has always looked from above the service one. Especially when, after I asked for birthday presents I've been told no one deserve it, but an artist doing the same thing a week after get a total opposite reply.

And sadly it suck. During last weeks updates, I had to struggle to finish them. The last week-end was a rainy one, so my plan to work outside were ruined. I decided I may as well work on the update. But as I was filling the excel forms, the task was getting more and more excruciating. The routine of pick clip, look for character, paste character, look for category, paste category, get description, open file, get picture, make 3 thumbnails, rinse, repeat was getting too much. I barely was able to finish it.

The task of updating the site is getting boring. When someone draw, that person gets something new each time take the pencil. They even improve (well, most artist anyway) each time they draw something, they learn. But it's the same boring routine each week with the site. A routine that give no satisfaction at all, no reward of any kind, personal or from other. At least, when I'm coding, I get a satisfaction of making something, of solving problems, of learning new things. And I've been having a lot more fun working on the Deviantart download utility http://dragoniade.deviantart.com/art/DA-Favorites-Downloader-143106876 and the DragoniadeClipUI helping tools http://www.shadowlordinc.com/Dragoniade/images/DragoniadeClipUi.png than the updates themselves.

I've been told by a few friends "if the site gets more a job than an hobby, you should stop". And I've decided just that. I'm taking a break, an hiatus, for the next 2 months. After that, who knows. Since I've just spend 130$ in Fighting Fantasy books for contents, I may as well roll 2 dices and if I roll over 6, update new info. And if I roll over 9, I'll upload the clips along. Ok. More seriously, I'll probably go for a monthly and not fixed update. It seem sites with 'unscheduled' or monthly updates get more notices and feedback. In the meanwhile, I probably will continue coding: finish the search engine, add browser support to it, refine the book section and probably tweak some sections and probably give velocity a try on the site. This is what I've been enjoying more lately. So, tada until January.

It's fall. It's the time of the year where people are the most tired due to the time and light change. It's also a time to think about our decision.

There's been something that has been bothering me. Seeing a similar post elsewhere gave food for my thought. We could say I have 2 jobs: my real life job and the Shadowlord website.
The first one, I work 40 hours a week in average, sometime more. My achievement are rewarded bi-monthly by a check.
The Shadowlord website, I wish I could put the time I spend on it. Lets try to put some average number. Looking for show, normally a Monday to Saturday job, spending about 2-3 hours a day looking what the PVR recorded. Sometime more, sometime less. Then come the week-end. 2-3 hours preparing which clips to upload, normalizing them since the old site and starting the upload before heading out. Then on Sunday, it's the actual update. I think I spend 4 hours on that last one, since there was new clips and I needed to redo the thumbs for the old show. In total, lets give a round number of 15 hours a week.
Contrarily to my work job, this one give me zero benefit. It's all on my arm.

So what has been bothering me... Is it wrong for me to want fanart / gift art for all my work? Practically all of the personal artworks I have are commission. I can count gifts fan arts with both hands. I spend a lot of time weekly on the community site. The 700 average monthly downloads (from 400 to 1200) shows there's people using it. Yet, I practically get no real support. I'm a sucker for transformation of myself and Dragoniade arts. Anyone who saw me at a con knows that from my sketchbooks. But people seem not to consider it's worth contributing.

What's the most frustrating is I often see people on Deviant art posting the request they've done. LOTS of request to some TF fan. Some which are know to be real pest at requesting stuff. Why can people doing NOTHING other than begging for art get something, while I, who work that much for it, get nothing? It's even more infuriating when some of them message you and brag how they got more commissions (read requests) than you, then say they can't pay because they're just kids...

Not only that, but I've got my share of being burned for helping people in the community. I'll wash my dirty laundry there with some of the enraging case.

* Mr K2, Mr B, Mr S and Mr R both transformation artists, needed help on a website. Since I was a friend with B and Stonegate knew K2, I offered myself to code the back end of their art gallery, in exchange for a color drawing from each tenant. That was in 2002 or so and I coded their website, adding a new feature from time to time as they asked. Mr S and Mr R did their part and drew me a picture each. Mr K2 denied owning me any drawing while Mr B only gave me an unfinished sketch, only half of it inked. To this day, no word from any of those 2.

* Mr J and Mr K live together and are fan of transformation and cartoon. Mr K contact me saying he's a fan of TF and that he would be interested in seeing some clips to help Mr J with character references, poses and transformation. I agreed and sent him a good chunk of file. In thanks, he did a drawing for me. After that, he asked for a few more reference, asked for some money for help and for a commission, which I accepted since I usually support those that supported me. After 6 years, I have yet to see those drawings, only getting excuses like 'the dog ate the first sketch', 'Mr J is trying a new technique, you'll be the next one to try it', 'We're moving', 'Mr J's not in the mood'. and so on. Another TF artists I helped and that went bad to me.

* Mr. L is a transformation writer. Back in 2004, he needed a new PC. Since he was a friend and I could get a custom PC build for cheap, we sort of made a deal. I would bring him a new PC and he would pay me at the next con. At the con, I gave him the PC, and he gave me half the cost, saying he would pay me the remaining with the money he would make at the con... Well, I never saw that money again. After 2 years, I agreed to take some commission from him to lower the money he was owing me.
At one point, he offered to sell me a commission he was stuck with, one at 160$. Out of charity, and knowing I wouldn't see the money anyway, I accepted. Only to learn afterward the artist in question, a professional one, would only discuss commission work on the phone or in person. Since he live in California and I in Canada, I was stuck. It took 3 years of back and forth before I could get the commission done. And if I could get back in time, I would have said no to it. Not only I don't think it's worth 160$, all I got to this day is a low quality camera shot of 3 pages, Mr L being too cheap to send me the original. To this day, that person still owe me 200$ in commission plus that 160$ commission. All for helping a TF writer who I thought was a friend.

* Mr T, Mr T2 and Mr S were trolling me for ages. With time however, they sort of realize they were wrong and that they may have gone too far. They sent an apologies email, but when replied back asking for more information and maybe a chat to make official the truce, no reply at all. More likely, those email weren't truthful.

* Me K2, an artist, get some clips from me. Mr E, an artist too, learn that and ask Mr K2 to have them too. Mr E reward Mr K2 with an art trade, while he could have asked me.

* Mr N receive his email for donating to the site. He contact me back saying how a fan he is, that he's been watching the site for years and that he want to give something back. A transformation drawing of me would be an interesting drawing, since he's an artist. After 18 months, not a single words back.

So, is it worth all this? Every two weeks, I get paid for what I do at work, the good and the bad. With the community, no matter what I do, no matter who I help, I always end up losing. I see people getting gifts left and right, I see TF artists trading with each other in a sign of support. I'm in my corner, working, being told to shut up if I dare ask for some support.

Is it too much to ask fan/gift art? Why is my work belittled compared to other? Tanuke thought Naga 10th anniversary was worth mentioning, but not our 10th anniversary? Arania is worth getting monthly donation but I don't? Werechu and SSBdave can get all the gifts and requests they ask but I should just be working and shut up?

All I get are broken promises or excuses. "I'll draw you something to support you". "If I had knew it was your birthday, I would have done something"

In the end, it's a dark November like this where I update the site, with a feeling of wasted time. Feeling I'm just giving away my time for nothing, not even a feeling of accomplishment, now that 36 GB and more than 6000 files has been uploaded.

Why are artists give to other artists, writer to other writer, and vice-versa, but an archiver like me, is considered to be not worth anything. I had that feeling back in 2004, when Stonegate and I were shunned by 3 artists we thought were good friends.

I'm more likely going to move to a monthly update now. Bi weekly update were too much work and people were just re-posting clips on You Tube. Weekly update bring me back nothing and just lower my mood. I'll have to make my mind.

Seeing another birthday go by with nothing but apologizes was not to add any re-comfort either. With that, big thanks to Metamorpher and Lukery, the only two persons who thought about me for my birthday and gave me a present.

I'll probably take a break for a month, going back at coding stuff rather than working on clips that goes unnoticed. Probably gonna try to make a video of what it take to maintain the site and bring new contents. This site sure is no Transfur in that aspect.

Until then, if anyone feel like giving it a try, I'm all welcome to gift / fan art of me.
I'm a sucker for self transformation artworks. Just do a search on Deviantart for 'Dragoniade' and you should see some. I have even 3 in my scrap section in Deviantart. http://dragoniade.deviantart.com/gallery/#_browse/scraps I had more but they were all deleted by some power tripping moderator.
I like animal transformation or any good physical change. I like anatomically correct drawing and anatomically correct Transformation too. References : http://www.shadowlordinc.com/character.view?Character.Id=7737 for both me and Dragoniade, with more images under the thumbnail.

Any question, feel free to drop by on AIM, Yahoo (Dragoniade), MSN (dragoniade@hotmail.com) or by email at this same address.

Duplicated on my Live Journal.

It's less than than 6 days before I jump over another decade. Time sure fly by when you keep yourself busy. I wonder if this one will be different than the previous ones. I've been seeing people left and right giving celebration to others. I hope thing will be different this time, or if my theory will be proven. Though I have my old ghosts to deal with regarding this.

One thing this nostalgia reminded me, were all the books about transformation I went through when I was a teen. Some of those are the well known Fighting Fantasy series. I used to go through them at the library only to locate which one had transformation in them. This is sort of why I added the book section to the site. But since they were from the library, I never got my hands on a book to keep for myself. Only the excerpt of the transformations, and a list of book.

Until now. Some time ago, someone posted a compilation of the transformation in the Fighting Fantasy series. Last week, I pulled that list and compared it to my own list, adding the missing entries, removing the duplicating and finding the right title compared to mines, since my list was based in the french publication of those books. This also made me realize that some good Transformation publication were only available in french, like the Metamorphose series (Metamorphosis). As the name implied, it's FILLED with transformations and transformations is the main plot of the, sadly incomplete, series.

I've ordered a few books, which are arriving. But a lot of those are quite old and hard to find. So, if anyone have access to any of those book, from their neighborhood old bookstores, or their personal collection, and can have them for a FAIR price, let me know. I would be interested in completing my collection.

Also, if you happen to know of any extra books I could add to this list, let me know, with the series it belong to, it's publication number and title. I know Eala posted a few years back a scan of a transformation theme Goosebumps adventure book, so there must be other outside of the Fighting Fantasy format.

Here's my list so far, with what I own. Any help would be appreciated

Fighting Fantasy (Puffin Books)
=====================
3: The Forest Of Doom
8: Scorpion Swamp
16: Seas Of Blood (OWNED)
19: Demons Of The Deep (OWNED)
25: Beneath Nightmare Castle (OWNED)
26: Crypt Of The Sorceror
29: Midnight Rogue (OWNED)
33: Sky Lord (OWNED)
36: Armies Of Death (OWNED)
37: Portal Of Evil (OWNED)
38: Vault Of The Vampire (OWNED)
42: Black Vein Prophecy (OWNED)
48: Moonrunner
49: Siege Of Sardath (OWNED)
53: Spellbreaker
57: Magehunter
58: Revenge Of The Vampire

Fighting Fantasy (Wizard Books)
=====================
8: The Forest Of Doom (OWNED)
13: Sorcery! 3: The Seven Serpents (OWNED)
14: Armies of Death
15: Sorcery! 4: The Crown of Kings (OWNED)
21: The Eye of the Dragon (OWNED)
28: Spellbreaker (OWNED)
29: Howl of the Werewolf (OWNED)

Steve Jackson's Sorcery
=====================
3: The Seven Serpents
4: The Crown of Kings

Clash Of The Princes
=====================
2: The Warrior's Way

The Cretan Chronicles
=====================
3: Return Of The Warrior

Warlock
=====================
8: The Floating City

Défis et Sortilèges
=====================
1: Caïthness l'élémentaliste ??????
2: Keldrilh le ménestrel ??????
3: Péreim le chevalier
4: Kandjar le magicien ??????
5: Les Héritiers de Dorgan ??????
6: Le Sanctuaire des Horlas ??????
7: La Huitième porte ??????
8: L'Ultime réincarnation ??????

Métamorphose
=====================
1: L'Homme aux cent visages (OWNED)
2: L'Oracle de Balkh (OWNED)

La saga du prêtre Jean
=====================
1: La forteresse d'ALAMUTH

Golden Dragon Fantasy Gamebooks
=====================
1: Crypt of the Vampire ??????
2: The Temple of Flame
3: The Lord of Shadow Keep ??????
4: Curse of the Pharaoh ??????
5: Castle of Lost Souls ??????
6: The Eye of the Dragon

Dungeons & Dragons: Endless Quest
=====================
4: Revenge of the Rainbow Dragons ??????
15: Under Dragon's Wing
13: The Dragon's ransom ??????

Star Challenge
=====================
1: Planets in Peril

Apuleius wrote:01. The new show "Kid Vs. Kat" features an upcoming episode called "Beware of the Were-Coop." YTV provides the following summary: "After Kat scratches Coop under a full moon, Dennis is convinced his best friend will transform into a deadly were-cat. At first Coop scoffs, but with a little help from Kat, he soon succumbs to his ferocious, feline fate." A TF seems quite likely. This show hasn't yet begun airing in the US, but YTV has already aired part of the first season. This week it airs the sixth episode--the were-cat episode is the ninth episode.

Sadly, it turned out to be nothing more than just Kat gluing hairs on Coop.

kylejhall2 wrote:I'm just wondering if you can post your web link to DeviantArt so I can see some of you work/favorites.

http://dragoniade.deviantart.com/

I'm back from vacation. Already all gone and back to work.

I left Friday in the early morning to take the plane that would fly my north for hunting. I meet my mom and we drop to the work camp when we packed the boat.
The next day, I met my hunting partner and headed to the reservoir to head to our mirador, 20 km by boat, while my father and mother were hunting in their mirador.
We were supposed to stay there until Wednesday, as both my mother and partner were heading back to work on Thursday, but due to the bad weather, we decided to head back Tuesday. For the 3 days we stayed, it was all wind and rains.
There were quite a few wind waves on the reservoir, but the boat was sure able to take it.

I took Wednesday easy, as my father needed to catch up at work. I took the day to work a bit on the site, working on the future search engine and adding another import feature to help me with the updates.

On Thursday morning, my father and I headed back to his mirador that he lefts the day earlier. The silence was great, disturbed only by the sound of Canadian gooses honking while flying south, beaver swimming and duck running on the water.
However, it was sometime disturbed by the sound of machinery, loaders and dumping truck, working a few kilometers away on the road leading to the work camp. With the mountain and flat valley, the sounds were really amplified and it was like they were working right next to us.

On Friday, my father when down to the ground to call, while I hold guard upstairs. At 10h00, he climbed back and we were sort of loosing hope, as the working sound was really loud and were really disturbing the peace. My father decided to take a nap, while I pulled my laptop to resume my work on the search engine, raising my head every minute or so to keep watch.
It's at 12h30 that I raised my head to look outside I saw it. A small buck walking along the other side of the stream. With all the noise, one came out. I notified my father, who got up as I was grabbing my riffle and my clips. We both got outside and as my father was aiming the moose and I was readying myself to assist him, I saw it... Another moose left the branches to follow the first one. And it was another male. I look at my father, saying there was another one and acknowledging with him about getting both. We nodded at each other and while he was aiming the first one, I aimed at the second one.
We both shot at the same time. His fell at the first shot, mine didn't move an inch. I shot 2 other time before he finally decided to walk away back into the bush. I was shocked. 3 bullets and it did nothing. But knew I hit him.

We waited an hour, watching in case the first one would get up and in case we would spot the second one, before crossing the stream. The first one was down, not having moved an inch, so we proceeded to find mine. There was blood, so I did hit him. We first went into the high folliage and saw nothing. While my father decided to walk further, I went back to where I last saw the moose, then started to track the blood on the ground and foliage. Red on green is not easy to spot, but after about 30 feet through the foliage, I saw it. I did get it, and quite good. All shot went in, where they should, but he was one of those that wouldn't fell no matter what. We started to prepare the nooses for transportation, which means eviscerate them then cut them in quarters. During the process, my partner arrived, having been notified we hit, and two hours later, our expedition's partners. We loaded the ATV and headed back to the main camp to hangs the quarters. All done, we headed back to the work camp for the night.

On Saturday, we started washing the stuff and packing, planning to head south on Sunday.

On Sunday, we got up at 5 AM, ate breakfast and started the drive back to our maple grove, a nice 1400 Km trip .

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=embed&saddr=Unknown+road&daddr=45.621722,-72.108765+to:Rang+St+-+Thomas&hl=en&geocode=FWIAIgMdMD9t-w%3B%3BFfXrvgIdjGHH-w&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=8&via=1&sll=44.762337,-71.987915&sspn=2.683424,8.453979&ie=UTF8&ll=44.762337,-71.982422&spn=7.488536,14.0625&z=6

We stopped at Amos to register the kills. About halfway through the regional park, we were flagged by the forest patrol to stop. Seem they were waiting for us and we figured out it was because we registered 2 kills at the same spot, same time, same day, which is rather suspicious in other circumstance. After checking all the papers and asking a few questions, they asked my to come inside for questioning, same for my father. They questioned me further, asking more details about how the hunt occurred. After a 15 minutes interrogation, one of the ranger left and I waited with the other one. They came back, saying all was OK, and we left a few minutes later. What they were after was if my father was the one who shot both moose, which is illegal. But since we both fired at our target, we were all ok. We resumed the road trip and arrived at Longueuil close to 20h30 or so. My parents drop me home, since I needed to pick my car, while they continued toward my sister's home, to stop for the night.

On Monday, I resumed my trip, heading to Sherbrooke needing to buy some food for processing during the second week of 'vacation'. However, my father called, saying he lefts my mother at the hospital, a puncture she did during the road trip got infected. My father continued to stop to the butcher to drop the moose while I was heading to the hospital and waited for my mother. She got her leave late the day, after which we headed to the maple grove.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Friday were mostly spent cooking the food I brought back and use some of last year moose to make room for this year meat. So we made Moose spaghetti sauce, Moose Shepard pie, Moose Meat Balls, Moose Stew. We also unpacked. Sadly, it rained most of the week, so we didn't managed to get too much done on the land as we would have hoped. I took the opportunity to work on the updates I brought with me during that week.

My parent left on Sunday, while I took the day to work on another project of mine. You see, I have more than 14000 favorites on Deviant Art, most having never been saved, having been more of an online collection... which I hate. I never been a fan of WEB 2.0, where everything is online and should something happen to the online site, you lose everything. So I finally managed to figured out how DA worked their AJAX, through searching left and right, and got started in coding a crawler. This small program query Deviant Art for a user's favorites, mine in that case, recovering the data in XML with all the information for the picture. All that is left to do is download the URL supplied and voila. A structured local archive of my favorite, sorted by artist and title, which I can use for wallpaper, or view OFFLINE without having to be connected to DA.

I spend the remaining days working on this, my updated and getting some wood in for the winter, before heading back to Longueuil and getting ready for Fur Fright. I took the opportunity to get an extra sketchbook, and a 5x8 labels set, which I used to add a cover to my sketchbook. Sadly, I'll have to figure a way to make the laser toner stick on that paper much longer. I think I'll have to use that spray I saw some artist use on their paper, if I can manage find what it is.

On Thursday, I left to Fur Fright after picking Chasseur d'étoile for co-riding there. We got to the overflow hotel by 22h30, then headed to the convention hotel to see if we could register. Since everything was closed, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

On Friday, we registered and we went our separate way for the con. I wandered into the dealer's dungeons for a while, leaving my sketchbooks at a few tables, before heading to the werewolf panel. I think this was the only interesting panel this year and I sure wish I had brought my laptop, since there as been a long transformation talk

I also meet Comus and we talked. He's quite a friendly guy to met and I was sure surprised, in a good way, when I first saw him. I also meet Sorethumb and ICheetah at the con. I was supposed to pick a box at the con from someone who owed me some stuff, one of which was a 160$ charity commission. Of course, the box never got there, the person never having sent it thinking I wouldn't be at the con, while at the same time, being unable to spend 4 dollars for an envelope with a 200$ insurance to send me my commission, which I sure now regret taking, charity or not.

I spent the rest of Friday and most of Saturday wandering between commissioning in the dealer's dungeon, meeting with Comus or Sorethumb groups and the charity event, which I got the DVD of the Howling

I went with Comus to the Gun Fur panel, thinking, by the description, it would be a informative panel about weapon, like C-Ace used to have. Sadly, it was another propaganda, brain dead gathering of weapon crazy United Statians who saw conspiracies in every corner and would be ready to go Rambo should someone ask them to drop their weapon. Like you need to carry a gun to go to the grocery or walk in the street. Some people are just so paranoia. While I understand and enjoy shooting at range, like they do, I cannot understand the religion about keeping a gun on yourself 24/24 and feeling threatened every second. Go figure.

On Sunday, we gave our goodbye and we parted, until another year. I got home at 02h30, having stopped to Cabela's to grab an order for our hunting gear and reload.

While this Fur Fright was interesting in term of meeting people, I must say I was a bit disappointing by the organization. First, when you have to rely that much on overflow hotel that are more than a street corner, it's a sign you've outgrown yourself. Sure, that hotel is quite nice, with the indoor atrium, but when you have to commute between both hotel, it's a realy fun killer, especially when you're tired and need to rest a bit. Second, the programming was to be improved. Last year panels were fun. This years, it could have been better. Too much fur suiting panels or USA propaganda panels (gun, military, dog soldiers, etc) and not enough general panels. Hopefully, next years will have better panel.

Another sore moment was when I showed my sketchbooks to a friend. His first reaction was to ask me that question: "How many gifts do you have in there?". Which, of course, was a big ZERO. All were commission, none were gifts. Which he replied "This really suck. You deserve more." Yes. I think so too. I spent the week before updating daily, pushing a big update. What feedback do I get? None, Niet, Aucun. I see people pushing quarterly updates getting much more feedback, more support, more gifts arts, but when I do one over time, nothing. Why do people writing crappy TF story manage to get requests done by the dozen, and I have to work in the shadow? Why do people say I deserve more and still get nothing. That sure is depressing when it come to updating the site and give back to the community. Especially when I'm told I should be happy I make people 'happy', but the other way around sure isn't important. And it's not to help when you hit the 10th anniversary mark, only to be cast aside by another 10th anniversary, which seem was more worth of mention in a TF blog.

At least, with commission, I can expect to get something back to myself.

I've come to a dilemma.

Until now, all clips uploaded on the site were in AVI format, using a common MPEG4-2 video codec, akaa (DivX 3.11, DivX 5.11 or xVid) and an Mp3 audio codec.

During my vacation, I've been tweaking with DVD and re-encoding older clip with the true aspect ratio and resolution. Watching some of the encoding results, I've been doubting using the same old codec. However, migrating isn't an easy step. Most clips now are using MPEG4-10, also better known as H264. FanSubber should be familiar with it.

The problem is, hold AVI don't like that new format when it's used to it's full potential and ask for another container. Those are the famous MP4 and MKV files. There's also a AVI codec for h264, but less powerful as the native h264.

I've encoded 3 clips and here a screen shot from for each of them.

Xvid in Avi codec, encoded with VirtualDub. The current codec used for my clips.

h264 in Avi codec, encoded with VirtualDub. A potential new candidate

h264 in MP4 codec, encoded with ffmpeg. A potential new candidate

h264 in AVI is the easiest to migrate to. Virtualdub support it, there's no extra step to take. All my scripting factories can easily support it.
h264 in MP4 is the worst. An intermediate file must be created in Virtualdub (for logo and all pre-processing), then encoded in MP4 by ffmpeg. More trouble and current my scripting doesn't allow multi programs.

So, which one seem more suitable? Personally, I would say h264 in AVI, even though it's considered legacy. But considering the lack of good encoding / editing software supporting mp4 / mkv, I prefer support a legacy format with tools than a "your on your own sucker" format. And I don't know how many people can play H264.

The screenshots are a Dragon Transformation from the Mummy :Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The resolution is 864x368, to support true 2.4 anamorphism while optimizing the resolution.

I don't have a wii so I can't really help you there.

But from what I read with a quick google, you need to convert the file to a format compatible with the wii and load it through the SD port. Not really worthwhile.

Personally, I got myself this: http://www.wdc.com/fr/products/products.asp?driveid=572

Pretty neat and has been able to play my clips, along with some downloaded episode, even those at 1280p.