Shadow Dragon - Vs Copyright Issues on the Internet

I found the above graphic of a Shadow Dragon on Pinterest about a week ago, which I intended to use as a graphic for a Facebook event for myself and friends.

However Pinterest, when accessed via my phone, does two things:

1. They are really annoying about trying to get you to download their stupid app. Which I hate and I encourage others to NOT use the stupid Pinterest app.

2. They disable people's ability to save images to their phone and then use them for whatever purpose (educational, memes, fan clubs for Game of Thrones, it doesn't matter).

The 2nd issue really comes down to Pinterest trying to protect their users copyright - which is really impossible, because this is the internet. Where there is a will, there is always a way in which a person can copy/paste/save/reuse an image if they really want to.

Take for example a program I use regularly: "Capiche". Basically it works like taking a screen shot, but it only makes a copy of whatever area of the screen you select. That means it doesn't matter how much coding a company tries to use to prevent people from copy/pasting or saving/reusing images, Capiche don't care. It copies the image anyway in the same way a screen shot would.

Beyond this is the issue that it is on the INTERNET. It is the genie out of the bottle. You can't get it back in. Once it is on the internet anyone can use it if they see fit. Trying to get rid of something on the internet is absolutely pointless, because it can be shared on Facebook, on Twitter, on blogs, social media - they could be thousands of copies of something within hours if the image or video is particularly interest.

eg. Video of white police tasering a handcuffed black man to death. That will go viral so fast it isn't funny - and it isn't funny, because I am describing a real video that happened recently. Google the name "Linwood Lambert". His family are suing the police dept. for $25 million.

The whole thing about copyright is suppose to protect the owners of original art pieces and writing from people copying their stuff and then making money off of it. Making a meme, using it for educational purposes, making a parody of it, and so forth - those things don't make a profit off the art piece, and thus are exempt from copyright.

So thank you Pinterest for annoying me. If it wasn't for you the meme below never would have been made to prove a point.

Bacon Toys for Nerds

I saw the above shelf while out shopping with a nerdy friend of mine. They had:

Bacon Mints

Bacon dice game

Bacon frosting

  Wow!

Game of Thrones Canadian Election

More Nerd Foods

Below

230 lb giant Reece peanut butter cup.

Spaghetti Zombie Heads

Bacon wrapped pineapple with ham.

Clearly new heights of nerd foods are available to be reached.

The Proper Pronunciation of Drow

It is a debate that waged for years amongst Dungeons and Dragons players - What is the proper pronunciation of Drow?

The debate is about whether Drow, a race of dark elves, is pronounced "drow" like grow or is pronounced "drouw" like the word cow.

Well I am finally going to put this debate to rest.

Years ago I read a Dragon magazine article about Old English mythological monsters. One of them was the "dtrow", a dark elf creature that lives in caves and under bridges and attacks travellers and other surface dwellers, usually at night because it avoids sunlight. The "dtrow" is the basis for the Dungeons and Dragons dark elf race known as drow - but it is also the same root word for troll.

Dtrow is pronounced with a soft DT sound and pronounced like grow. Therefore the proper pronunciation of Drow is like the bow in crossbow, grow, mow the lawn, etc.

Anyone who is using the pronunciation "drouw" like cow, take a bow, ow that hurt, etc is saying it wrong due to ignorance of the word's origins.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1970) states:

"Drow, n., [scot.]." The word is a variant of the Scots term "trow", which itself derives from the Scandinavian word "troll". The original Scottish Gaelic word is pronounced "dtrow" with a soft "dt" sound, and the original pronunciation sounds similar to "troll." The word is also found in Cornish and Welsh, with slight pronunciation differences. The race itself seems based on another dark elf, specifically the Dökkálfar of Norse mythology.

The word dtrow is also found in Old English, suggesting it was an universal word for dark elves on the British Isles.

Anyone who is pronouncing the word wrong, well shame on you! You are mangling the word. The Dtrow or Dökkálfar would be very upset to learn humans are mispronouncing their name so often due to sheer ignorance.

Priceless Price List for Graphic Design

If you are one of those creative nerds you spend a lot of time on a computer designing things for clients, the topic of client meddling will certainly have come up at least once in your brain or in conversation with a client or colleagues. You may not have called it "client meddling" but you might have used some expletives to describe the sheer annoyance of having to redo things again and again to make a picky client happy.

"I don't like this grey. It is too grey. Can you show me a different grey?"

"I changed my mind. I don't like the background. Can you redo it in blue and change everything so it matches the new blue?"

"Looks nice but can you go back and redesign everything from scratch so the layout is horizontal instead?"

And so on... it makes you want to throttle the client. The trick to getting around this is to explain to the client the amount of work that goes into every change - and that if they make repeated changes due to being picky then the designer should be charging an hourly rate and tracking the amount of time spent on every single change.

The price list below is a REAL price list posted by a graphic designer in the USA, partially serious and partially to illustrate to clients that client meddling = more time and more time = more money.

Found R2 Unit - Nerd Gag

In my latest Nerd Gag I have decided to go for a Star Wars theme. This time I didn't even bother to post an image of the item in question in hopes that people would get the reference. Posting a photo after all would be too obvious.

Found R2 Unit (E T Seton Park)

Somebody left their R2 unit at E T Seton Park this past weekend.

I took it home and while I was cleaning it I found it contained a scrambled message which I believe is for the owner.

If anyone knows someone called Obiwan Kenobi please contact me so can I return their R2 unit to them.

I mean, com'on, if you don't know what a R2 unit is then it pretty obvious you missed on a large chunk of 20th century pop culture.

Lost Jackalope - HUGE REWARD

As my third Nerd Gag I have decided to post in the Lost and Found section on Craigslist regarding a Lost Jackalope and offering a huge reward of $25,000.

The beauty of jackalopes is that some people might actually think they are a real animal as opposed to a mythical creature that people have been faking using taxidermy and photoshop. Photos of jackalopes do look pretty real after all so anyone seeing the photo might think it is a real animal.

I am very curious to see how many people respond thinking jackalopes are real animals.

Their responses will be posted below.

"Seriously???? J

Too funny"

-Sandy V.

"nice try dick head"

-DAWG

Evidently this Nerd Gag was too obvious of a prank.

One last one, from October 8th.

"Hi I think I found Freddy - we connected and he is very special - I won't take your reward just please get back to me 

Thanks"

-Diana

Dark Lord Cthulhu - Free to a Good Home

Following up my recent gag Craigslist post: "Time Traveling Editor Wanted" I have decided to make another gag Craigslist posting. So here you go. A homage to the Dark Lord Cthulhu.

I am curious to see what kind of people respond to this one... Should be worth a laugh. See the responses I got from the "Time Traveling Editor Wanted" post in the meantime.

The first response is already in. The post was only up for 2 minutes and here is the first response.

"You can send email to York University - Animal Behavior Psychology Professor who loves octopus and she always talk about them how intelligent they are.  Call them and they give you her name and email."

-Krystyna S.

I am almost tempted to do as she suggests, just as an extension of the gag.

2nd response:

"hey there ill take it i need something to eat up dem christans anyways do you have an orb to keep em in???"

-Christopher P.

 That level of insane spelling and lack of grammar should fit the Dark Lord nicely.

"Salutations,

I am true interested in providing a home for this beast.  I have been looking for an octopus for years.  Please let me know if your still looking to find a new companion for this little monster.  I love scary movies,  catching snake and feed creatures of this sort other little tasty critters.

Feel free to contact me any time.

Best regards,

Derrick J."

"is he spayed?"

-Jim E.

"so, does it fit into a cooking pot? piece by piece;   the say it does taste great; the bigger>the better!!!  
pls let us know asap!!!"

-Mike K.

"Hello
Have you considered universities? The biology/marine/limnology/

aquatic deparTmentS would be more equipped to handle it."
-Alex L.

"Do you still have this?"

-Bruce C.

 Apparently some people think I have an actual giant octupus that I am giving away. Some people apparently did not get all Dark Lord Cthulhu references as a joke.

The post was flagged and removed 7:54 AM today so I am going to spend today daydreaming of a new Nerd Gag to post.

Thank you to all who responded!

Time Traveler Wanted - The Berenstein / Berenstain Bears

Yesterday I posted the above ad on Craigslist (see http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/wrg/5197527611.html ) as a gag, just for fun. It is a reference to the time travel theory that history has been changed and the spelling of "The Berenstein Bears" has been changed to "Berenstain" for some unknown reason.

So far I have received the following replies via email:

I laughed! Thank you, I needed that.

Now, back to looking for video editing gigs. 

If only it were a video editor you needed. Unless you'd like someone to go back and change the spelling in the TV series. I could do that. But I'm not sure about the gold. Just pay me in exposure. Expose me more and more, so that in the new timeline, I could become a stripper and have a much better income than a video editor could ever possibly have. 

Anyway, good luck with this whole escapade. I'd offer you my time machine, but it can't decide whether it's a Delorean or a police box. So for now, it's turned itself into a refrigerator. It works okay, but it's a bit chilly and you always have to be near an outlet. However, it does offer protection against nuclear blasts. 

-Maria K.

My Tardis is in the shop.  Perhaps we can handle the gold part right away, and I can let you know when they return my Tardis.

-David L.

If I get more responses to the ad I will add them to the list below. :)

Alternate Compensation for Time Traveling Editor 

You could also do the thing where you go back to 1825 and put one penny into a bank account...

et voila!

I'm down for this.
Isadora

Okay here is a bizarre one.

A lawyer sent me their resume and a sample of past editing work they had done. Why is a lawyer doing editing work? That seems very strange. Keep reading...

Also they apparently didn't even read the post. They are just spamming out emails to everyone, not even bothering to read the job description. I am of the opinion this person is too stupid to be a proper lawyer and that is why they are sending out their resume instead trying to get editor jobs. Too dumb to be a lawyer, apparently smart enough to be an editor, but too freaking stupid to read who they are spamming emails to.

I therefore immediately concluded that this person needs to be shamed so I was tempted to post their entire resume. Shame on them for spamming. Shame on them for taking editing jobs when they apparently have a law degree and passed the bar exam in 1996. Freaking 1996! They have been a lawyer for 19 years and they are now taking editing jobs? WTF. Something is weird with that person.

Plus I really hate spammers. All spammers should choke on a fish bone and die in my opinion and the world would be free from useless emails clogging up our inboxes and wasting the time of people who have honest jobs and get those jobs without resorting to spamming people.

When I read the resume closely however I notice that they prosecuted child abuse and neglect cases from 1996 to 2000. Wow. That kind of job would burn someone out real quick. They switched careers in 2001 because evidently they were burnt out and obviously couldn't handle the stress of their job any more.

In my opinion this person should go back to law school, get a job in copyright law, and that would still allow them to work in the publishing industry. And to be fair, copyright law is a much happier place to be than prosecuting neglect / abuse.

So in conclusion I have decided I am not going to post their resume after all, but I still think they should stop spamming people. It is rude, wrong, unethical, annoying and I hope they realize the error of their ways before they choke on a fish bone and die.

If I get more responses to the ad I will continue to post the results below...

Update - Unfortunately that did not happen.

The Craigslist posting was flagged and removed yesterday at 2:14 PM, apparently because someone didn't have a sense of humour.