I'm on holiday at the moment. On the last day of term I handed in my major assignment (as well as the weekly assignment, and sat a test) which was about turning an animal into a concept design for an animated character. Here's a picture from it for you to gaze upon.

When Newgrounds.com gave another $250 to last month's five best Flash animations, my Zero Wing Rhapsody was voted 8th best. Now there's a challenge...

On the subject of money, when ThisStrife.com got terminated, one loyal TmsT fan donated ONE DOLLAR to me though Paypal. That was Ben Pippin, and although his donation was reduced to sixty cents after Paypal deducted their portion of the payment, and in the end no amount of money could save ThisStrife.com, I would just like to publicly thank him for his support and then cough hintingly at the new Donations link on this website. You wouldn't want to lose TmsT again, would you? I'm down to my last advert-free server. And if you don't feel like donating money, you can always get other, richer people to come visit. :D

Global reaction to the lack of TmsT has been impressive, with barrages of fanmail pouring in demanding to know what has happened to TmsT and when it will be back. Even the Pope was affected; his Holiness keeled over and carked it when he saw that TmsT was offline. And of course I was affected too, but not as much as I was when one of my previous webhosts up-and-died. At least this time I got to keep most of my files. But I don't care about files. The real loss here is YOU. Well, okay, not you personally because if you're reading this then I obviously haven't lost you, but getting ~400 visitors a day didn't happen overnight for this website, and it'll take a lot of work to get 'em back.
That's where you come in.
I'll be doing my darnedest to change the links in all of my Flash animations and upload all 47MB them again on a 56K modem (which will take a few weeks), and all you have to do is promote TmsT's new address to your friends, family, and foward-trash spam list. ^_^

Together we can bring back the good old days of TmsT, because if you don't care about bringing TmsT to more people, then neither will I. And that would be sad, because I would have to close the site down permanently.

In less-depressing news:

* I made a Flash-based "game" for Random Ferret's birthday: Happy Birthday Random Ferret

* After over four years of cooking my own meals, I suddenly got two doses of what seemed like food poisoning, within two weeks of each other. So I've given up on cooking meat and become a vegetarian. To compensate for this wimplike move, I have taken up killing small furry woodland critters (no, not really. But I still eat meat as long as somebody other than me has cooked it).

* Here's a screenshot from my upcoming Flash movie "Up Skit Creek - Volume 2"

I was watching the news again and saw that scientists have discovered that women have "better" brains than men. For example, women use more of their brain than men do. (Why is this news?) Of particular interest was the fact that women use not just one but BOTH sides of their brain for language-related functions. This would explain why women are famous for being able to jabber away for hours on end when men would sooner express the same idea in a single grunt (and maybe a punch to the shoulder).
Also on the news, youths don't have the brain capacity to safely drive cars because the mental mechanism that stops them from doing things that are "dangerous" doesn't fully develop until they're about 25 years old. The more you know, the more you know, eh?
And on that intellectual note, enjoy The Official Ninjanimutation by Random Ferret and despise him for doing such a goshdarn good job of laying the smackdown on pirates (even if it did take a HUGE file to bring 'em down). Arrrr.

And, just because I haven't drawn a comic in over a month, here is a new cartoon.

No, that's not me, this time! TmsT regular reader Redlof posted this picture (and others) on the IMHOSTFU web forum today. Here are the other pictures:
More Keen than a sleeping dog!
Work that pogo!
ZOT!
And so, out of appreciation for Redlof having sacrified his dignity all in the name of amusement, hilarity, and retro gaming, I immediately whipped up a short animation using these photos.
Here it is: I AM Commander Keen! Warning: Contains Redlof.

Another satisfied TmsT customer, Justin McCabe, sent in his own Windows Background image using graphics from Zero Wing Rhapsody. You may download it here (rightclick). There's also some new material in the AYB Parody Archive, and a new TmsT Flash animation coming in the next coupla days or so, with any luck.

Rick "Trasher" Trimble from Australia has made something to bring back some fond shareware memories: COSMOWN3D!!!!1

LOLy ROFLcopters, Batman! How quaintly do people speak in superhero comics from days of yore.

Come to think of it, it's still Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland... and that's what really matters. But then, every day is Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland...

Obviously, this is a "coverup story" for some illicit but harmless genetic engineering, but it's nothing to go protesting about. See? Happy sheep. Happy farmers. GE isn't all bad, only when mother nature attempts it and leaves the results up to random chance.

Now I suppose you want to see some original cartoony art from me? Okay, here's another little look into my {choose your own adjective} mind.
I drew this when I was about 6 or 7. Freaky eh?

Fanmail of the Week:

apparently you deserve a medal.
*shrug*
so anyway, I made you a pretty shiney one. :)
Enjoy!
And tell j2n4me to stop telling me to give people medals. }_{

~Jael555

Something occurred to me today. How fitting it is that it took four New Zealanders to do a decent remake of Zero Wing... after all, the scientific name for kiwi, when translated from Greek into English, is more or less "zero wing". Oooh.

And, even though Livejournal is not really my "scene", here are some 100 x 100 Livejournal Icons for you to download and use.

The soundtrack to my semi-recent semi-animutation The Squirrel of Life can now be downloaded by right-clicking here and selecting "Save Target As", for all those who emailed me with this unexpected request... and others.

Aaaaaand finally... Another Vertically Continuous Image animation that I started and forgot to post here last week. It got my name on the front page of AlbinoBlackSheep, which was quite an honour.

Sure, it's obscure and esoteric. In my defense, I claim that all moviemakers have to do a remake of a classic sometime.

I just happened to pick.........

Fan mail of the week, from Patrick King:

If u didn't already know this:
the corous of the French Erotic Film roughly translates to:
All i really want is a inflatable crokidile, and to take him to the ocian and float him in the waves

Shocking News: Emmy Cicierega has decided to prove to the world that she doesn't ONLY draw cute kitties all the time. :O

The music from the opening skit of Up Skit Creek is here on Toxic the Machine's blog. Be gentle on the bandwidth.

Fan mail of the week:

this is blackmail

make a cartoon, or ill send you one spam email every day

I've started watching television again, but only so that I can keep up to date on world events and make smart comments about them. For example: "Why are people outraged and disappointed that President George W. Bush smoked marijuana? I think that's the best news I've heard about Dubya in ages. It's reassuring to be able to attribute his dopiness to, well, dope, as opposed to natural stupidity. Isn't it comforting to know that he wasn't just born that way?
If anything, this revelation that Dubya smoked pot is the most convincing warning statistic about the drawbacks of marijuana that the world has seen. Stoners around the globe right now must be looking at Dubya and throwing their pipes and bongs into the trash. I know I am! Ah... I probably shouldn't've told you that...
But seriously folks... (uh oh, I'm going into soapbox-mode now) why stop at marijuana? If we could just get him to admit to snorting cocaine, injecting heroin, taking acid, and listening to Justin Timberlake's latest hits, why, we could get millions of people worldwide to realise just what that kind of thing can do to you - it'll scare them off those habits forever!

Heck, while we've got ol' Georgie in the global confessional, let's get him to admit to needlessly making war in Iraq; that should get a few of the other warlords in that area to take a look at what they might end up like. That'll scare them off violence for a bit. Wow. Sometimes I amaze even my unamazable self with my ingenious ideas. Hmm. I've got the munchies."

HEY! YOU should make an animation and win US$250 on Newgrounds! All you need is a good idea and some Flash skills!
What's that, you don't have the necessary Flash skills to make an animation that will do justice to your brilliant concept?
Well, Andrew Kepple does!
That's right, folks. Now you don't have to sit on the back bench with your great ideas while the reasonable animators with mediocre ideas get all the action. Simply bring your idea to Andrew, and sponsor him to make your animation for Newgrounds' "Cash For Flash" contest!
With three "Newgrounds Daily Features" and numerous other awards under Andrew's belt, how could you give up the opportunity to work with this experienced Newgrounds animator whose trophy cabinet alone suggests some pretty darn good odds of winning yourself $250?
Don't be left there at the end of the month, rolling your eyes cynically when some atrocious stick-combat movie about Street Fighter and the Matrix wins $250¹. That winner should be YOU, with your brilliant ideas for Flash movies that don't suck.
As well as being able to draw and animate in Flash in a variety of styles, I can compose and perform my own original, royalty-free soundtracks if need be.

So don't delay, e-mail Andrew (TmsT) right now for more details on investing in his Flash-animational skillz!

I'm serious about this, despite the semi-sarcastic accompanying image that I just put there to let you know that I am fully aware of how much of a sell-out I am becoming. I've already had one person contact me about this. He not only had a great concept, but also a complete script! That's the sort of thing that is more likely to convince me to pick you next month.

[1] That's MY idea, okay? So if I see any Street Fighter Matrix parodies out there, I'll know that you stole it from me. MINE MINE MINE!!! Just kidding.

I feel unclean. Give me money so I can buy soap. Moving right along...

I hope that this month's GCW comic is less painful for you to read than it was for me to draw.

Whatif Commander Keen was REAL?

We got to draw animals at the zoo last week. More on that later.

THE SQUIRREL OF LIFE

Speaking of animutations and amusing drug references, animutationist Bill Volk has created a story/genre -based animutation that is being hailed by critics (me) as "one of the funniest things on the internet". Genre animutations are rare, my own Plan 9 From Underpants being an example of one of the first and few. I hope that more animutators follow this proud tradition of animutational genre-spoofing with silly storylines and unlikely characters, because it's damn funny. So without further yabba-dabba-doo, here is...

Hello folks!
Who's reading this, long time Strifers from yeeeeeeeears back when we were all younger and let jaded [Ed: Maybe he means "less jaded" or "jet lagged"?]. Plus some newer Strifer who've never seen the worst versions of this website before it looked like this :) (Plus carputer folks may read this)

Something happened to me recently that has forced me to look and my life and make changes. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, because I've slowly built up routines and ways of doing things my whole life. However the tower of responsibility and stress got too big and toppled over.

So now I'm cutting back on all the things in my life that cause me extra stress. All the little things that are little, but the more of these little things the are, the larger the pressure gets.

When I first started This Strife I was an ambitious young(er) guy who wanted to create something on the "internet". I wanted to show the world what I could do. I had the time and energy to make this website and other things happen.
If you look at the release dates of all the comics, you'll notice a gradual slow down in the production of the comics.

As time went on, I wanted to keep doing the comics. But it because something I didn't enjoy doing, but I felt I had to because people demanded it of me. This website was here, this is what it did. In this time of "free" websites that we can all visit easily, we expect them to deliver and provide us with facts or entertainment.

I now must expect that this website is a burden to me.
As everything else in my life becomes harder and demands more time, I cannot continue to spend what little free time I have working for everybody who reads this for free.
Even for money, I couldn't do it. I've been over stretching myself more and more as time has gone on. I thought I could always keep pushing myself, to do more, achieve more things. But nobody is super-human and trying to behave in such a way is harmful and short-sighted.

I will continue to keep paying for ThisStrife.com to be on-line and I'm also keeping the Strifeputer (Strifeworld.kicks-ass.net) going. More than this, I cannot say.

Thank you to all the people I've met through this website over the years. It's been touching to learn about and see so many people grow up around and with me. I look forward to continue talking to everybody here, in one way or another. I wish everybody the best.

Peter 'Maverick' Bridger

On a brighter note, I made a new Flash movie yesterday, and it'll be released on Monday. It may answer a few deep and meaningful questions you have about life and the cosmos and other deep philosophical guff. Here's a screenshot:

And finally, it's official: "Up Skit Creek: Volume 2" is underway! No ETA as yet.

UP SKIT CREEK

Much to my amusement and horror, Random Ferret has created a nightmarish gallery of photoshopped versions of my face. He's changed my age, my ethnicity, even my species! Scary.

Aaaaand we're back. Here's how the rest of the voyage northwards went:

Saturday: A hot, sunny journey around winding roads with temporary "30 km/h" signs lurking around every corner for no apparent reason later, and we were in Hamilton. On the way, James (who was doing the driving in this rooooadtriiiip to Auckland as long as I paid for fuel and ferry passes) and I puzzled over the identity of the lone snowcapped mountain which we had mistaken for Taranaki at first, and then figured that it might have been Ruapehu, or possibly an elaborate matte painting left there by the film crew that were shooting something on the side of the road. So in Hamilton, I met up with Mark, AKA "Shadow" as he is known on the NewGrounds.com bulletin board, whereupon he purchased a copy of my graphic novel, The Fisherman (PLUG, PLUG!!). I also gave him a Flash movie that I had made on his behalf a while ago - "Agents Agents Agents". But, oh horrors! James' car wouldn't start. After jumpstarting it with Mark's sister's car, we decided that the car would be lucky to get James back to Christchurch, and wouldn't make it to Auckland. So I gave James his return petrol (and Coke^TM) fund and some good luck and stayed at Mark's overnight with my belongings.
The next day, I formulated a plan:
1) Find potential flats in www.nzherald.co.nz's Flatmates section.
2) Try the phone numbers and arrange to come visit the flats that afternoon.
3) Fill a backpack with everything I need to survive a week in Auckland.
4) Catch the bus to Auckland.
5) Go to Jono's place (Jono directed the first musical that I sang onstage in, Pirates of Penzance, done by MuSoc in 2000).
6) Find out where the addresses of the flats are, study a bus schedule, and go visit said flats.
7) Make a decision on a flat and move in within the next five days.
8) Return to Auckland at the weekend and get the rest of my stuff off to my new flat.

Is 7) unreasonable? Some people would say that finding a flat that easily in Auckland is an unlikely feat, but I was out of options. As it turned out, only 6) and 8) were altered - Jono kindly gave me a ride to the first flat on my list: a cheap yet fully furnished room, close to a bus stop. To cut a short story shorter, I'm living there now. Mark & his mum turned up in Auckland today with the rest of my belongings, which was very kind.

Stuff About Auckland:
Auckland is like Christchurch at Christmas time: It's hot, there's too much traffic, large numbers of people are everywhere, everything has an advertisement attached to it, but one can sometimes encounter random acts of friendliness. I've survived several Christmasses in Christchurch, so I think I can endure Auckland until December... :-P
I hope that the Christmas rush doesn't begin early here. :-O

Auckland is like Soviet Russia: Locals ask YOU for directions! But seriously, folkskys, all those hills and hi-rise buildings in the CBD are very confusing, and I have an atrocious sense of direction. I've given up on trying to figure out the place in terms of traditional cartographic conventions like "North" and "West" and am thinking of where things are in relation to one another in a kind of polar coordinate system with the Sky Tower at the origin. Much more sensible. I can forget where North is, but it's not too hard to spot the Sky Tower around that part of the city where I'm studying.

Freelance Art School: To use a really corny extended metaphor, I am Harry Potter and Freelance is Hogwarts. I haven't encountered any Snapes or Malfoys or Voldemorts (oh my) yet though. But that reminds me... I was wearing my "Potter Puppet Pals" T-shirt in Hamilton and the woman at the bus station counter recognised it and confessed to having a PPP-themed LiveJournal icon (wow, hooray Neil!).
I also met another chap - Mike - at Freelance who has been a TmsT fan since late last year. Auckland may be the largest city in the country, but remember that this country is New Zealand. *Duelling Banjoes music*

Conclusion - in the style of a corny, retrospective "Where Are They Now" protagonist voice-over at the end of some corny movie that tries to make sense of itself by adding retrospective, philosophical voice-overs at the start and the end: Well, Mark dropped by today with my stuff (which is why I'm online again). He said that Agents Agents Agents has had a great response on NewGrounds, with a current score of 3.5 and some pretty sweet reviews. Jono still works in the CD shop on Vulcan lane, just around the corner from me, but he was out on a lunchbreak when I went in there yesterday. James made it back to Christchurch (and then Timaru) without any major mechanical motorcar mishaps, and resolved to get a new battery before he sells his car. The new machine that he has his eye on is in Wellington, so if he doesn't come up to get it until Easter, I might see if I can hitch a ride back to Christchurch for the holidays. We'll see. I guess I've learned an important lesson over these past few days. I've learned that Auckland is a CRAZY place where - oh, get this - Pak 'n' Save actually CHARGES MONEY for the plastic packing bags! Yeah! So in other words, if you Pack, then you DON'T save!! So if you DON'T pack, then you save! "Pak 'n' Save" is an oxymoron - they should change it to "Pak OR Save"! Crazy! AND AND AND the Big Ben pie company produces APPLE PIE as well as the regular meat pies that we get down south. CraaAAaaaAAAaazy! Do you hear that? That boggling sound? That is the sound of my mind in Auckland. *Boggle, boggle, bogglity boggle*

Goodnight.

Arriving in Welling-Tron on a Friday night and trying to somebody's flat on Cuba street amidst crazy traffic on one-way streets, drunken unruly youths, and driveby egg-throwers is not an easy mission, especially when the host of the flat is still waiting for one down at the Ferry terminal, and one's phone has run out of a battery! Oops. Never mind, tomorrow will be even more challenging as I get to Hamil-Tron and then Auckland. Maybe. Arg. We'll see. I still haven't found a flat or place to stay in Auckland yet... hafta wait 'til I get there. :D

Reason to come back and visit TmsT in the near future: My next great Flash animation is nearly done! Squee!

In other news, a fortuitous change of weather has saved Toadie's neighbourhood from certain doom. Looks like the weather gods must've visited my website yesterday!

Today's Funny link: Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names. Yes, chemists can have senses of humour and/or lots of spare time as well!

It's this sorta stuff that makes me glad to have not much of my own news to report right now...

---

15/01/05 (Visitor Counter=133,049): Pop up ads SUCK!!!!!1 So that's why this advert is actually part of the update.
Time for a disturbing

The Fisherman is dark, it's spooky, it might even qualify as "goth" under some definitions... although it doesn't have any futuristic vampires in it (sorry).
Click here for a sneak preview of one of the pages. The novel itself is considerably less messy than the hastily-sketched scary comic, but it's just as a spooooooky. And it's 12 times as long.

To order your copy, e-mail me. Payment can be made by Paypal, cheque, check, or OTHER^*.

If you live outside of New Zealand, it's NZ$10 including postage. Which is roughly US$5, or 3 euro, somebody told me.
If your postal address is in Australia, it's only NZ$9, just because you're cool (and postage is cheaper from NZ to Aussie).
For NZ residents, it's like 7 or 8 bucks including postage. Maybe less, I'm not sure. e-mail me and I'll find out for you.

^*Your immortal soul.

It's hideously underpriced compared to other similar stuff in the NZ comics industry, so consider yourselves lucky (if you have Paypal or live in NZ).

Okay, enough of this sales pitch. Next thing you know I'll have popup ads on Tmst (GASP, NEVER!!!!!) or something.
And for every person who buys The Fisherman, I'll draw an additional GCW comic to what I would have normally drawn. Yeah. ^_~

There are two new All Your Base parodies in the All-Your-Base-a-torium.

And now it's time for something unrelated.

Cartoons later.

Today's cartoony picture is a SNEAK PREVIEW of my upcoming Flash movie. Ooh ooh! What could it be? Hint: Not what you think. Unless you're Mark Hughes AKA Toxic the Machine AKA Bob Barker, who helped me with the voices.

Thanks to everybody who has been emailing me with praise for Bring On The Apocalypse (which is now filed under the "MISCELLANEOUS" heading on the ComicPage). I might scan one of my other 24 Hour comics soonish, if I haven't drawn anything new by then.

Oh, and also Happy Birthday to Mav'.

Anyway, now it's time to make some some New Year's resolutions.

But I don't smoke, so that means that I don't have to make any. Woo-hoo!

Instead, I shall give you a couple of screenshots from an upcoming collaborative Flash project from the animutation community...

2003:
December
November
Gothtober
September
August
July
June
May
April
March (Deleted by AllRandom.com)
Febrewery (Deleted by AllRandom.com)
January (Deleted by AllRandom.com)