The Getting to Know You Meme

[richardf8]

Ganked from makovette and kevinjdog

This is the problem with LJ, we all think we are so close, and we know nothing about each other. I'm going to rectify it. I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me, something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

What events in your childhood do you feel shaped you the most?

[richardf8]

I fear you vill need to set up ze couch und take out ze notebook for zis vun, Dr. Freud.

Let's see -- perhaps my strongest trait is my inherent distrust of authority. This can, perhaps, be traced to my mother's tendency to mete out disproportionate and arbitrary punishments for imagined slights, or on insufficient evidence. Perhaps the most disturbing example of this was her dismemberment of a Snoopy-like plushie before my eyes with a chopping knife. I have no idea what this was in retaliation for -- a broken Sugar-Bowl perhaps -- but I remember it well. It taught me a very important life lesson: that "rule-of-law" is a ruse by which emotionally immature people seize the power to perpetrate their sadism upon people who do not value power as an end in itself.

And as is so often the case with arbitrary rulers, my mother was arrested when I was 7 for underwear theft (and since she was safely in custody and out of his hair, my father decided to run a few errands before posting bail), and at fourteen I had to enjoin her to put back on the shelf some Chicken Livers she was trying to lift from the local market. Things don't get cheaper than chicken liver, and she certainly had the means to purchase them -- we were by no means poor -- but my father had made the mistake of letting her turn money she did not spend on household goods to her own ends, and, well, I guess she just had "other priorities."

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Building on that response, my question: Am I to understand that you think the world would be better with no laws?

[richardf8]

I would rather we lived in a world that runs on ethics rather than laws, but this world is not that world and laws are a necessary evil.

But my point is that those who squawk loudest about the "rule of law" often do so because they have found a way to exploit the law to increase their power - they tend to be the least ethical and the most lawless among us.

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Sounds about right, then.

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

Holy cow.

Yeah, that would define me pretty much, too.

..."rule-of-law" is a ruse by which emotionally immature people seize the power to perpetrate their sadism upon people who do not value power as an end in itself.

Even the most altruistic person who works hard to struggle to get into a position of power is never doing it completely for the benefit of others.
Cynical? We report, you decide.

[richardf8]

Even the most altruistic person who works hard to struggle to get into a position of power is never doing it completely for the benefit of others.

Indeed. Of course, the very PROCESS corrupts.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

What lit your fuze to get into creating your own web comics and why now as opposed to say two years earlier or later?

CYa!
Mako

[richardf8]

Short answer: "Newshounds" and the death of Rodent Baby.

Long Answer:
I was introduced to User Friendly in Q4 of 1999 and read it devotedly for a few years, until the humor became to scatological for my tastes. But through it I discovered General Protection Fault, through which I discovered Newshounds and thence Ozy and Millie. Somewhere along the line I picked up El Goonish Shive.

From September 2002 through July 2003 I was unemployed, and I took it into my head to try and draw something. I drew a Big Rainbow tomato with some really crappy colored pencils. Then, using my cat's face and a Get Fuzzy anthology for references I drew Ensign Katz. Around this time, kevinjdog put Newhounds on hiatus, and filled the time with Boy Shop Pets. Seeing the vast improvement that Newshounds represented over Boy Shop Pets convinced me that I could, with a bit of patience, learn to draw well enough to support a story.

The premise "cats in grad-school" came in a flash and would not let go -- I still use the notes I made that day in 2002 to keep my story arc on track. Characters were designed, scripts were written, and strips were drawn. Autokeen Lite was messed with, but since my ISP doesn't allow CGI, I ended up writing a PHP script to display it. My scanning techniques were learned from Dan Shive, my penchant for pen-and-ink is owed to a long love of newspaper comics, and kevinjdog's and rain_luong's discussions of their techniques. It remained password protected until July 7th 2003.

You see, on July 5th, morgan1's cat Rodent Baby was put down for advanced Renal Failure, and I drew a strip comemmorating her. It seemed imperative at that point to show that strip publicly, so I registered the domain name, took the password off the PHP script, and added the url to the signature line I use in the Keenspot forums. Rodent's Yahrzeit, the anniversary of her death, is to all intents and purposes, the strip's anniversary.

[makovette.livejournal.com]

Facinating Richard, thanks for the most excellent answer. I'm rather pleased I asked that question now :)

CYa!
Mako

[richardf8]

Oh, I've switched the Backend for HaNozri from autofox to that PHP script. In doing so, I've discovered an issue with HRF that I thought I'd bring to your attention since it sounds like you're planning to do some php stuff on HRF too.

Description:
Given an index file named "index.php" and a url of "http://hirezfox.com/hanozricomic/" an Access Forbidden page is returned. Howver, given a url of "http://hirezfox.com/hanozricomic/index.php" the page displays correctly.

Cause:
Standard behavior for apache if it does not find an indes file it recognizes is to display directory contents. Redhat configures apache to deny directory requests (a good thing-makes the system harder to hack). If apache does not know that index.php is a valid index file, it will attempt, on a "/" terminated request to display the directory rather than index.php. Since this is forbidden, a forbidden message is displayed.

Solution (server side):
ensure that "index.php" is in the list of files which it will serve on a directory request. This is set via the DirectoryIndex directive in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf or in /etc/httpd/conf.d/php.conf. (On my staging server, it is the latter).

Workaround:
Encapsulate the index.php file in a frame in an index.html file so that apache will display index.html which, in turn, displays index.php.

I've done this, so you won't be able to duplicate the error using the "/" terminated url above, but if you create a hello world program in PHP and try to use it as an index file for a site, you'll see what I mean.

If you want, I can send you my config files so you can compare.

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

I'm really happy that I was helpful in inspiring such a fun comic strip. :) I'm sorry that a bit of sorrow had to function in that manner too... only therein lies the reality of life. <:/

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Can you pleez name all the programming languages you are familiar with, what are/is your favorite(s), what sort of things your do with computers, and what would be the ideal career for ya? :9

[richardf8]

1) Languages

• Pascal/Delphi


• C (if I must)


• Visual Basic (if I must)


• PHP

PHP is my current favorite, mostly because I've been doing a lot of web programming. When I first got into this at the tender age of 15, my great delight was controlling hardware. Sinclair BASIC was my first language, and Turbo Pascal my favorite. These days there are so many layers of mediation between the application layer and the hardware layer that I'm content to program at the application level. Mostly, after many years of hardcore geekery, I am content to be a user and let the computer meet my needs.

2) What I do with computers.
These days its mostly web-design and image processing, along with some midi-sequencing and digital recording. There was a time I loved the technology for its own sake, but these days I need it to serve a larger purpose.

3) Ideal Career for me?
I've been struggling with this one since about 2002. Computers have been putting food on my table and paying the rent for over a decade now -- mostly through stints in support and occasional programming and training jobs. But I don't feel like I'm doing any good in the world through these efforts. I have been finding myself intrigued, lately, by things like counseling or ministry, things that would allow me to make positive contributions that last for longer than until the next time the PC blue-screens. So, for the time being, I'm letting computers continue to feed me while I "find myself."

Excellent recap!

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

*warble*
Thanks for the intriguing compilation.. and best of wishes in your goals! *wingshakes your paw*

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

Is there any (non-religious) book you've read over and over?

[richardf8]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.
Uncle John's Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader (gotta get some new editions.)

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

C. S. Lewis is non-religious? ;)

[richardf8]

Or for that matter, Pirsig?

[childings.livejournal.com]

Wasn't C.S. Lewis an athiest? He was just interested in Christian mythology and motifs and used it in his work.

[richardf8]

C.S. Lewis converted to Christianity (not sure what flavor) sometime during his career at Oxford. It was his faith, not a mere interest in Christian mythology, that was behind the Chronicles, the Space Trilogy, Screwtape, and his abundant essays on the matter.