March 30th, 2010
Hello peoples! Just wanted to drop in and let you know I'm still alive. Still haven't quit the comic.^^ I've just sorta bit off more than I can chew here in the art department, recently. I will get that next page put up here as soon as I can. (Not saying when, because it would end up being a lie, as always.) Forgive me?!
posted by madsniper at
10:17 PM
64 Comments:
Like we have a choice, we're a bunch of junkies and you're our dealer!
amplax: original company name of aflac, but it was decided that it didn't have the same ring.
Have to agree with Slade. All will be forgiven as long as it eventually returns, I want to see more of the story :)
Snipes, ya don't need to hide from us. Just showing up and saying "It's coming eventually, but IRL stuff, ya know?" will get you showered in hearts, kisses, and smooth baby bottoms.
} : = 8 D
We love the comic, we love your art, and we love you. Just 'cause life's a bitch doesn't mean we're gonna suddenly go all "Grr, rawr! We hate you! FEED US!!!" on you. ^_^
I second the above.
All in favor?
P.S. Anyone who votes "Nay" will be joining me for lunch...
} : = 8 D
Ooh, I could use a little lunch, what did you have in mind?
<.< The people I took to lunch...
} : = 8 )
Oooh, I haven't had a fresh human in soooo loooong. Can I come? PLEEEEASE?
Sure! Though, we haven't had anyone say "Nay" yet... >.>
Snipes...
We loves you, and that ain't changin.
Besides, you get any negative jackasses e-mailing you, feed'em to us. Literally :D
Blast it, Scott, now I'm hungry...
} : = 8 /
...my stomach concurs with Ilithi's assessment of the food situation.
*licks chops*
You are forgiven, but the gods are displeased.
I am disappoint. 3:<
No worries! You go handle life - because without life where are we? ^_~ Lol
I also agree with Slade and Ilithi Dragon about dealing and baby bottoms... LOL
No biggee. Stuff happens, unexpected and expected. All we ask is that when you do get the chance to return, don't rush. We love the quality and the story.
FOREVAH!
Oy, like I keep saying, don't overwork yourself, miss! I'd be mighty displeased with you if you did that. XD
Forgiven. *hugs*
See! Even Anonymous, who never forgives, forgives you!
HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!!!!!
Merry Springtide!
XD
That was great, Ilithi.
-.- You're seriously just never going to update again..
Heh Ilithi, we've got food..and boy is is mezzy.
} : = 8 D Now I don't have to pack a lunch tomorrow!
I'm not really one for cannibalism, so I'll just watch you guys.
Okay, this is creepy. My verification is "readme." o.o;
It's only cannibalism if it's your own species.
} ; = 8 P
Dragon and wolf on human doesn't sound cannibalistic to me.
You try sitting on your ass watching a field and making sure terrorists don't invade a FOB for 15 hours straight and see how nice you are after. Especially when it's 120 degrees in the guard tower with no AC. Then you can be mad at me for saying she's never going to update again.
But you know me, just fighting for your freedom to spend all day on the internet insulting anyone who has a different opinion than you. ^_^
Just finished the archives, and it's great. Keep it up. I love the story and the art. Also, I found this from Indavo's links, if you care.
Oh Mezzy, I'm trying to enlist myself, that won't stop me from poking fun at you.
Which war did you get stuck with anyways? Iraq or Afghanistan? And whereabouts?
And so there aren't any surprises about my query Mezzy the simple reason I ask is this: if you're in Afghanistan you are indeed protecting our freedom and I salute you. If you're in Iraq though you're sadly a pawn of one man's idiocy and ego. I still salute you in that case, but I wish your talents and life weren't being wasted on a folly.
I'm at FOB Fenty in Afghanistan. I've been here for going on 11 months. I FINALLY get to go back in May. I'm a radio tech, but they have me on guard duty when there are no trucks/planes/field gear to work on. -.- So yeah, watching for terrorists for 15 hours, then 6 hours off, then 15 again. It's ridiculous. And I REALLY don't suggest signing for a while. At least until this whole war is wrapped up. And if you do, don't go into infantry or special ops. They're like the pawns in chess - they always go first. It's not a good scene, $36,000 signing bonus or not.
I'm aiming for the Navy actually, and hopefully shipboard duty. With any luck I'll be able to avoid ground combat, I'm a coward and my hat is off to you for having the balls to stand on the ground.
My grandfather was Navy in Vietnam. He was the chief medic on a mercy ship, and when he came home they paid him $3 million in reparation.. but he came back changed. Be careful with the military in any branch because you're going to see some horrible things whether you want to or not.
Also, as a lady, I don't have any balls, but I appreciate the sentiment.
Yeah, I expect to change that's for sure.
I'm banking on it being a good change, school hasn't worked out for me, and I've wanted the Navy since middle school.
So provided they stop stonewalling me, I'll take the chance.
Does the term "terrorists" apply to people attacking an army that has invaded their contry?
Don't misunderstand me here, something had to be done about Afganistan after 9/11, but that does not make these people "terrorists"...
We could go on a huge tangent about how things were handled both in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. and I'm sure we'd all put forward a lot of strong opinions, and probably strong tempers. All I will say is that the basic nature of these wars and their problems can be crudely summed up by noting that our President at the time was told that he would need 5+ times the force he wanted to send to Afghanistan to do it properly, and 10 times the force he had available to send to Iraq. Instead of listening to his top military advisers and experts, he simply waited for the top general (who was retiring) to walk out the door, and replaced him with someone who would tell him what he wanted to hear instead of what he needed to hear. Continue down that path and is various branches, and you have a decent, albeit crude and basic picture of everything wrong with our two wars this past decade.
As for fighting for my freedom... Terrorists can't take away my freedom. They can scare me, and try to get me to abandon my own freedom, but a bunch of ragged men hiding in caves planning to fly planes into buildings have no hope of taking my freedom from me. You're fighting for my security (a vital and laudable role the military serves, even if it doesn't sound as 'grand and glorious' as freedom-fighting), and ideally the freedom of the Afghan people, but my people is not placed in jeopardy by the people you are fighting. (and don't get me wrong here, I've long considered, and still occasionally do consider a military career (and probably would have gone into officer school in the Air Force if my glasses didn't keep me from being a fighter pilot), I have a deep respect for the military, and I hate it when people bash soldiers/troops purely on political ideology (such as my roommate, who is very opposed to the military and tends to hold them all in low regard by default); kudos to you for being over there, and I hope you, and the rest of the troops we have over there, get back soon).
Now, all of THAT said, no insult was meant. We're just having a little fun. And hoping for some lunch. >.>
} ; = 8 D
You're quite right about the freedom thing Ilithi, I was simply using the commonly used terminology.
And I suppose we've missed out on our meal by now....blast, and I was hungry.
@Mezzy:
I've got a brother who came out of the Marines a few months ago, after two tours in iRaq. He said it's pretty boring there, they mostly just sit around on their butts and do patrols, even if you did have an interesting job. He was one of those guys who rode with caravans and did the communications between air and ground for call-downs.
ANOTHER one of my brothers, going into the Marines in the spring (next spring), is stuck in a backlog of people trying to get in.
Our economy sucks so bad, that even Afganistan and iRaq is better than being stuck without a job and no house loan.
Yeah, Iraq's a pretty quiet place for our troops right now. Our guys haven't been in active combat operations for months, just standing by as support for Iraqi forces, which have been holding up fairly well, all things considered. Our troop levels there are steadily drawing down, and we're on track to be largely out of there in a few months, in line with the timetable the President gave during his campaign.
@ Slade:
Yeah... Maybe next time? } : = 8 /
I hear you there about the economy. Should have taken my own advice and gone in out of high school instead of taking everyone else's advice and waiting.
We use the term terrorist because they don't just attack the "invading troops" they also attack the people of their country. They're extremists. It's not just planes flying into buildings either. Biological attack is a huge possibility, not only here but in the US. You may not see it as a big deal what we're doing out here, or what the military is doing anywhere, but it is. What would you do if someone dropped a biological weapon on your home, in your state of peace? You would die. Anyone put up against this shit is going to die. You, your family, everything you love and care about would be gone forever. That is terrorism. In Vietnam we used the worst biological weapon in history against a lot of innocent people as well as those we were fighting. Dioxin is the most toxic chemical ON EARTH and what would happen if extremists decided to make some and drop it on the US? Or any country? Everyone would die. Even now, after all this time, there are birth defects and more cancer and death and the water is so polluted they can't drink it and they can't grow crops because the land is scorched. What if that happened where you live? They're not all men hiding in caves trying to blow up buildings. They're scientists and weapons manufacturers working on the worst ways to kill people. There are even rumors of airborne Ebola. You could die bleeding out of every orifice if they introduce that into the states. Since only a tiny amount of people are immune to Ebola, at least 97% of the population would die one of the most horrible deaths imaginable. There is no cure. That is terrorism. If you're not living in fear, you're completely ignorant of the situation.
Anyway, they have me on double shift so I won't be able to answer for a while.
Actually I'm not living in fear for two very good reasons and a third philosophical one:
Firstly the US and it's allies have more or less crushed their economic base for large scale projects on the scale you're talking about.
Secondly they've been threatening us for so long without doing anything that it begs the question of how organized and well equipped they are.
And the third is thus: if I live in fear then they are dictating how I should live my life and by doing that they are winning. So I choose instead to live my life, and trust in individuals like you Mezzy who risk everything to make sure nightmares stay in dreams.
I'm actually more afraid of another group other than Al Qaeda doing something. So much attention has been focused on them and they're so isolated now that they're hardly the threat they were eight years ago. They're more a symbol now than a tangible threat.
Yeah, I agree with Slade 100%, and don't mistake me, Mezzy, I fully recognize that people like that must be opposed, and I have no problem with using military action to oppose them, if it's used widely and judiciously, and when appropriate (you don't send an M1 or an F-22 into every combat situation, after all, and not every situation calls for an outright military response).
Again, I fully support military action when used appropriately and judiciously, at appropriate times, and I fully recognize that there are those who oppose freedom and diversity and equality, and would see it destroyed or skewed in their favor, through any number of means. However, I will not live in fear just because someone threatens me, nor will I let that threat change who I am, or force me to compromise the very principles and ideals that I stand for and would fight for if need be. That is the entire objective of the terrorist, to control people through fear. I am fully aware of the dangers of biological and chemical attacks, even nuclear attacks (I'm a physics major, and the few times before when I said I could probably build a nuclear bomb out of materials found at wal-mart or a hardware store if given enough resources, I wasn't joking, so I know how easy it would be, relatively speaking, for a group with enough funding to acquire the means to construct such a weapon, though doing so without attracting Fed notice is the real challenge). But I will not let that rule my life. I will not let that change who I am. I will not let that change what I value, nor let it push me to violate my moral and ethical principles. I will also call out mistakes, blunders, and out-right abuses by my own side, when I see them. There is a lot I will tolerate and can understand, but I will not give my side a total by just because it's my side. We have to stand by and abide by the principles we stand and fight for, otherwise they're meaningless, and there's no point in fighting for them in the first place. I will also speak out when I see something being done that doesn't work, or makes things worse.
I won't go into specifics here, though, because this isn't the place for it and I don't want to spark hostilities.
What they said ^^ xD
(luckily I live in Dutchland, one of the lowest profile terrorist targets!)
Clearly neither of you have ever been infected with biological weaponry. As part of basic military procedure anyone going into a foreign country is infected with anything the opposition can throw at you biologically. Standard issue infections (extremely low doses) are anthrax, dioxin, smallpox, strychnine, low level radioactive isotopes and any other local diseases they can come up with. They do this hoping that you'll build enough antibodies so if you're hit with any of that in full measure you can drag your sorry carcass to a medic before dying. It's ugly, it's messy, and it's painful. No civilian would survive a full scale biological attack without immediate medical attention. Unless you've had a taste of these, there's no point in arguing further, so I won't. Just be happy you're safe in your homes, because once you see what these things can do and experience it yourself, you won't underestimate anything again.
And I'm not saying the US government is faultless, far from it. Look at the disasters that were Vietnam and the Iraq wars. I didn't join the Army to "protect and serve" under any circumstances. To be honest, I wanted a crack at the technology they had to offer. Since I joined five years ago I can now assemble, disassemble, clean, operate and update most conventional weapons, but my specialty is communication devices. They give me the tech and I make it better. Out here in Afghanistan it's an entirely different story. You do what needs to be done, that's the final line.
Oh, I don't have to be infected with them to understand what they can do. I know what they can do, I know that our biowarfare projects were canceled because they were too effective and could easily be more devastating and horrifying than even nukes, and I have an over-active imagination.
I'm also aware of the security we have against it; the people watching for the acquisition, transport, etc. of the materials and equipment needed to create these, as well as the finished products, and I'm also aware that most of this stuff, and the worst of it, is NOT something that you can easily just cook up in your basement, and even if it were, that still wouldn't change my reaction to it.
I will not let fear paralyze or change me, or compromise who I am because somebody, somewhere, might someday unleash a horrible weapon on me. Doing so means they win, without even having to actually develop the weapon. That is the whole point of terrorism.
And I refuse to accept that I must sacrifice my freedom, principles, and the very foundations upon which everything that I stand for is built, to be secure. I refuse to accept that I must choose between the two, and demand that both be upheld. It is a false dichotomy that you must choose between one or the other, there are always other options, and if you don't see any, you're not looking hard enough. Even if it wasn't a false dichotomy, and we had to choose, it wouldn't be worth it for the security, because we would lose either way - either we are destroyed or we give up everything that makes us who we are. Fortunately, there are always other options, and always a better way of doing something. "It's the only way," only happens in Hollywood (and no, I'm not being naive, I'm just refusing to take the easy way out and compromise who I am to get the job done. I also don't buy the BS like 24 that Hollywood sometimes likes to spit out).
And I am also keenly aware that the vast majority of the people fighting against us, are people and not monsters. Many of them are just ignorant, uneducated, misinformed, have no other options available to them, or are reacting to things that WE did to THEM and THEIRS. In other circumstances, odds are we'd probably get along fairly well with most of them, even before you give them the same opportunities and education and access to freedom and equality that we've had.
You two have fun, I'm not going to partake of this one any further. Everyone has their own opinions on the matter and I'm not here to change them. I'm here to enjoy the story when and if Sniper returns for another strip.
Hey! Love the comic! Keep it up. <3
Drat, still waiting for lunch...
} : = 8 /
Don't worry about the comic, life happens, and when it's back on we'll be here to read it.
Good luck and best wishes.
So, Friday night I had a dream that WN updated. I woke up Saturday, remembered my dream, and rushed onto my computer to see if it had come true (there were some other good things that happened in the dream that I was crossing my fingers on, but I can't remember what they were now), and was sad that it hadn't... I'm still holding out hope that it was just a longer-range precognition, though... Maybe this saturday will be really good. ^_^
Hasess: 3rd person, singular, present-tense, indicative form of the verb have, used by Gollum.
I saw 56 comments and here I thought that maybe Snipes had posted another comment about the update.
10 minutes later, reading through the discourse on the wars... >.>
Nope, just us going off in random directions, as usual.
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Steryt: What we do to the progress bar when we're over-eager for updates.
But random directions are fun! Every once in a while, I hop on my scooter and pick a direction and just drive. It's really fun, plus something that needs to be done because if you leave it sitting for too long without riding it, the gas congeals and you have to spend a lot of money to get it fixed. ::speaking from experience::
Plus, it kinda feels like I'm flying. :D
My word is "lisping." o.O;
You know Diem, you have some of the most uninspired words I have ever seen such a program throw at a user.
How do you do it?
arslt: the end result of being an arse.
It's really weird because a lot of the time, it has a strange word, but then updates to become an existing word!
"ankete" makes up for it, I think. o.o
What is it with these words? They make no sense...
@frogonamission:
It's just something that we do for fun; look at the word verification, write down your word, then make up a definition.
knuctol: medication for bruised knuckles
Yup. I brought it over from the blog of sci-fi author Dr. Brin, where it's been a long-standing game/tradition. No idea where they got it from.
Herseste: A hearse modeled in a heavenly French style.
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