the internet is for liars

i was once again reminded today that you can't trust anything or anyone especially on the internet.

i have enjoyed using facebook for awhile now. it's allowed me to easily stay in touch with family and friends. of course its a very popular community website these days. internet popularity attracts the scum of the earth.

i innocently clicked on a link last night to add an image for diabetes support to my facebook profile, in doing so.. somehow.. some asshole in some unknown part of the world was able to take over my facebook and my email accounts for purposes of trying to scam my friends and family.

it is incredible how something so innocent can become a bane of one's existence.. at least for a little while.

so i spent today resetting passwords and shuffling email addresses for every online account that was important to me or i could think of.

in a small way, it is partially my fault, using the same password for several different accounts just for simplicity, maybe due to stupidity and laziness. i know now to at least switch up my password on the more important things. i also have learned to not trust a damn thing that is shown to me online by anyone. 

i'm a bit pissed at myself for being careless, i'm somewhat pissed at whoever decided to be a faceless asshole to me today. but what can i do? i acted as quickly as i could to secure my accounts, which i'm 98% sure those accounts that i changed passwords to are now safe. i'm still a bit worried about some asshole still taking over my email though but i'm sure it'll be fine. there's no way they can get my password now without hacking microsoft's website, which i'm sure is not an easy task. i also plan on mixing up some passwords again over the next few days and keep my eye on my accounts.

it could have been a lot worse. i think the worst that could have happened is my bank account be compromised but i changed my contact info and password right away and it hasn't been touched.

i have been so careful over the years and it took one little mistake, partially of trust, to fuck up my day.

i don't need this extra stress during finals week but i'm sure i'll be fine.

there isn't much more i can do than what i have done. i think i've taken enough precautionary steps to make sure my information is safe.

ranting about beta tests

needed a place to rant and get my mind off things.

i have applied to several beta tests over the years but i can remember only ever getting into three of them. lately i have tried to apply for as many betas as possible so i can get some experience testing new games, for what it's worth. i feel i am a good person to have testing your game since i do have the knowledge of game design since i've been studying games and design for the past 1 1/2 years.. i know a bit about it. you'd think i'd be the perfect candidate to get into beta tests... but no.

many times beta apps don't let you write in comments or let you try to convince the developers why you're a good candidate. it sucks but i could understand why they wouldn't care.. and also who would want to read through comments of thousands of applications?

i don't know why but i sometimes get mad when i don't get accepted. sometimes it's worth not getting into a beta and being able to play a finished game without it being spoiled. other times i just want to see a game be developed.

so blizzard has starcraft 2 beta going on right now. they allowed the public to opt-in for beta invites months ago, i quickly snagged the opportunity... and i've waited. still no invite. i was lucky that i got into the wrath beta even though the game was released about 2 months later.

now what has me pissed. blizzard is doing this thing where for the next three weeks they are "giving away" beta keys on face book. so about three times a day they post a bunch of beta keys and let all 75k plus subscribed fans fight over them in a race to see who can enter the key first into the battle.net page. i've tried a few times over the past week to "win" a key this way but all i have experienced was aggrivation. every time, the keys appear to be claimed within a second of being posted. i have given up.

i even decided to remove myself from their fans on facebook so i'm not bothered or tempted by the impossible task.

either people are using scripts to enter the keys as soon as they are posted, even within an image, there are actual people high on crack than can type in software keys at super human speed, or something else. i have wondered if blizzard is posting used keys for the purpose of causing hype. if so, great marketing idea, getting people to salivate over false hope, but you're also pissing off fans.

so i now wait by my mailbox in hope of maybe blizzard will make an intelligent selection and i'll score an invite to the beta.

a part of me wants to play the beta of sc2 but another part of me says "who cares?" and the full game will be released soon enough.. and then i'll just get bored of it and never play it. aka: all of this frustration over the beta will be for not.

i really hope blizzard doesn't do this face book shit for the cataclysm beta. it is very frustrating. i'd rather stare at an empty mail box, hoping against hope, that a little letter will appear with an invite than play stupid games that are impossible to win.

i hate to use my blog to rant but there's no better place to do it... not that i have used my blog for much of anything lately. i'll get back to art type stuff eventually.

it was a learning experience...

i have been pushed to the limit of my 3d skills and beyond in the past 4 weeks. my task was to create a unique character, model, and then texture. i learned a ton about what it takes to create and texture a model correctly. this was a huge advancement in my 3d art skills. i can't wait to start a new project and actually know what i'm doing!

the legs were, are, and will continue to be a pain in my ass to work with. i am quite happy with how they turned out though. i plan on going back to this character later and and improve on the textures and some of the geometry. not bad for my first ever texture character.

updated webs

updated me online portfolio after about 3 months

www.aliencowz.com 

at least i finally posted some drawings. i still have a ton of stuff to add.