[NEWS] Server Instabilityness

Ok first, if the server is going to start acting really weird, why does it have to happen while I’m out of town? I was literally trying to fix it from my booth at NYAF with my friend’s iPhone.

So… the whole webserver is acting strange… and I can’t seem to figure out the problem. From what I can tell there may be a Wordpress plug-in that slowly eats up more and more memory until the server craps out and I have to reboot it… then everything is fine for a while until it happens again. I’ve gone ahead and disabled quite a few things just now which might be responsible, including the UsersOnline and Feedburner plugins. Unforunately that means the people who subscribed for email updates will not be able to get those… for those people I recommend the RSS feed until I can figure things out.

But yeah, this really sucks. Anyone know a good host I could switch to? >____<

[NEWS] New York Anime Festival 2008

Before I forget to mention it, New York Anime Festival… this weekend… New York City. I’ll be there. WILL YOU?

Not only is this an excellent opportunity for you to make fun of me in person, but I’ll also have Wolf stickers and a new and improved version of the Halolz poster… neither of which are available online yet! Speaking of which I should probably get that stuff up for sale online so I can start paying for this expensive new private server I had to move the site to! >___<

Well anyway, stop by and say hello! I’ll be in the small press area (booth 103 and 105). Also stop by and wish my sister Sarah (a NYC local) a happy birthday because her birthday is that weekend and she’s going to be wasting her precious weekend helping me! In fact here are some photos she took of the convention last year! You tell me that doesn’t look like a fun convention!

Also: I have a Twitter account now… if any of you are in to that sort of thing! Microblogging is THE COOLEST!

[NEWS] Site work!

Between 1am and 5am tonight the site will be under construction as we install a new site design and a bunch of new features! I would recommend not trying to post comments during that time as they could be lost from code errors. If you feel like browsing the site feel free, but be aware for these five hours the site may be in a very weird state and be very buggy.

Thanks!

[NEWS] Downtime

Yeah, so just after posting about server problems, wouldn’t you know it… Dreamhost takes the site offline because it’s TOO AWESOME. Sorry you can’t handle our awesomeness Dreamhost. We’ll try to go easier on you next time.

But…. just in case… I’ve got them moving Halolz over to a private server! Oh sure, I had to slip them a few bucks to grease the wheels of progress along (so what else is new), but soon the site will actually be able to survive a Digg link or a comment flame war!

Hooray!?

Oh and they had me add some sort of caching plug-in to the site to reduce the CPU load. If you see anything weird happen please let me know!

[NEWS] YIKES!

Holy christ. This has been a difficult week. Where do I start? Hmm… how about where things on the site began spiraling out of control.

Okay first, my apologizes to Scot Halbach (ArcZero) who had to wait forever for some proper recognition on his artwork THE META KNIGHT which appeared on the site on Sept. 5th. I am more than happy to provide proper credit for anything that gets posted on the site, and I’m sorry it took over a week for me to get that updated. I think this brings up a good opportunity for me to remind submitters that you should always provide a source in your submission email if you have one. It just makes things easier for everyone!

Next up… Untooned Kirby by Ferryn. Who would’ve thought such a disturbingly weird pic would make my life a living hell? Not only was it the most dugg submission we’ve had on the site, but it was also linked on quite a few gaming blogs. Oh sure, the attention is great and all, but the spike in traffic actually killed the server at one point (thanks for nothing Dreamhost). So yeah, I’m going to be getting some more info on upgrading the site’s server this weekend because having the site crash like that sucks and I don’t think it’s acceptable at all.

Speaking of crashes (hmm, just from that segue alone I’m going to hell) Sept. 11th was a weird day for the site. There are many submissions that come in that I’m hesitant about posting because they’re borderline inappropriate, and I mean, I don’t know… I guess I never really decided where the line was going to be drawn as far as offensiveness goes. I mean we’ve had lesbian Mudkips, vinyl Birdo cosplay, Team Fortress 2 dildos and even a joke about Christopher Reeve’s spinal injury… but even against all that I have to admit that these 9/11 themed submissions that I posted we’re in the poorest of taste.

Still, I’ve always been of the opinion that censorship is out of control and that free speech is one of our most important rights to defend, and it’s difficult for me to come out and say “No these are wrong and should never have been made.” As an artist I’ve always detested the idea of censorship, and although many people know my work to be quite inoffensive in general, I’m glad there have been artists out there that push boundries and make statements (whatever those statements may be). And hey, if you want a perfect example that involves gaming, take that 911 Space Invaders piece that was shown at Leipzig. It sincerely bothers me that something like this was taken down due to pressure on the artist!

But at the same time, I understand that people coming to this site aren’t looking for potentially offensive imagery or art, they come here for a quick joke or two… and as the guy acting as editor I probably should have put some more thought into whether these particular submissions should have actually gone up. Honestly though, my natural tendency is to just put something up and see what people think. I seriously thought the comments discussion for these two were incredibly interesting to follow and I think I’ve learned a lot about what people come to expect from the site. Unfortunately it seems that in general the feelings on these two are mixed, and I still haven’t come to a decision for or against removing the entries. To be honest, I’m almost more interested in keeping the discussion around than the images themselves. But I guess to me this is more like a great art critique, and I know that’s not what people come here for and/or care about.

So anyway, long story short, I will make a decision on keeping these or deleting them in the next few days. I’m sorry I haven’t responded to everyone who emailed me personally about this subject, but I think it’s a lot easier for me to write my thoughts out here than to reply to each of you individually. Anyway, let me just say if I’ve offended anyone this week, I am sorry.

Of course, feel free to blame Nick Soapdish! You know, the guy who made them! I just posted them! >___>;

And finally, despite all the antics this week, I feel it’s worth mentioning that this week was Halolz one year anniversary! Thanks everyone for submitting pics, commenting, and just straight-up reading the site on a regular basis! I seriously can’t believe the site has been going for a year straight (minus a brief hiatus). I’ve got a few ideas in the works for improving the site, so hopefully at least a few people will stick around to see them! >__<

- Shawn

SNEAK ATTACK!

Picture I took at Otakon of Shawn attacking Dave with his TF2 rocket launcher.

[NEWS] Otakon 2008

Well ConnectiCon is over, and I had a great time… but now it’s off to Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland! This is a big one, and I’ve been a little stressed getting ready for these two cons back to back, but at least you don’t have to worry about the site… I have plenty of Halolz queued up for the next few days!

So just like last week, I hope to see some people stopping by and saying hi. Mike will be making some brief appearances again at the table, so if you see him be sure to tell him to post more!

Oh I guess I should mention, we will be in the “B” block of Artists Alley… next to two of my usual cohorts Scott and Matt. And of course I will have all sorts of crap for sale… even secret stuff you don’t know about yet! Aren’t you just dying to find out? I can tell that you are. Well maybe you should get off your butt and drive to Baltimore!

[NEWS] ConnectiCon 2008

Hey look! I’m announcing a convention I’ll be at mere minutes before I leave for it! What a surprise! That’s me, “No Notice” Handyside!

Anyway… I will be in Hartford, CT for ConnectiCon this weekend, representin’ the Halolz. In fact, Mike “Never Posts Because His Computer Exploded?” Moore will be there too! A rare opportunity to meet a rare poster! :P

The most exciting thing I should mention though, is I had some rad new Halolz stuff printed up for this convention (and Otakon the weekend following). I’ll leave some of it as a surprise for now… but one of them I HAVE to share… a new vinyl sticker!

God, so awesome. I think once these are available online I’m going to do a contest where you stick this somewhere funny and send in a photo and the best one gets a prize or something.

Personally I’m thinking of slapping one of these on my neighbors car when he parks in my parking space. D:

But annnnnyway… if you’re going to be around Hartford this weekend stop by and say hi!

[NEWS] Brian Wilson Day!

So I wanted to do a quick plug for my friend Brian Wilson today… like me he’s getting back into the webbedcomax biz with his brand new strip Geist Panik. He’s got quite a few strips up so far, so (unlike me) there’s actually a lot to check out at the new site!

And not only does Brian have a new comic going on, but he has also made the first ever Halolz related t-shirt (based off one of his classic submissions)! Oh sure there are some “official” Halolz shirts in the works, but for now you may as well tide yourself over with this one! Or you know…. just buy one of mine!

[NEWS] Hyper T-Shirt Multi-Hit Combo!

Everyday people come to me saying, “Shawn, you’re pretty cool…  is there some way I could give you a portion of my disposable income in exchange for awesome geeky t-shirts that will make me the envy of my uncultured neighborhood?” Well good news! Thanks to a twist of fate, I have a buttload of new shirt designs that are finally available for sale on the fabled “internets!”

These shirts, which were forged in the fiery depths of Blackrock Spire, provide the extreme stat boosts you need in today’s fast-paced leveling environment, while keeping the exterior of your body silky smooth to the touch. Couple all that with the wacky designs I’ve slapped on the front, and you’ve got a garment that simply CAN NOT BE BEAT.

Supplies are limited, so order now! My baby needs strained peas!

[NEWS] Staccato is back…

OMG Staccato is sort of back!

Which is to say, new comics are being posted… but the new site looks pretty awful at the moment.

Still, feedback is appreciated!

Hope some of you guys remember the strip. >____>

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