Sheng-ji Yang posted:

move this thread to lf

Sheng-ji Yang posted:

time for some credit card fraud

CheesyDog posted:

it's happening
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GANFn8IoqYs
Thread over

quote:

I’ll give you an example: At NetQoS circa 2006, we hired a full-time blogger before hiring a professional blogger was cool. And Brian Boyko will be the first to say he was, and is, an oddball. His first introduction to the entire company came when he sent out a blast e-mail asking if anyone had a red cape and goggles. This was for a post commenting on an xkcd cartoon about bloggers wearing, yes, red capes and goggles, which Brian somehow found among our employee population and photographed himself wearing.

rscott posted:

Well I gotta give him credit, he turned being an autistic sperg brony posting on the internet all day into a job somehow.

rscott posted:

So did the $20 to buy an account and get platinum come from some poor sap's donation or does that come out of the expense fund that you're getting some rich idiot to bankroll?

A Rambling Vagrant posted:

At this point it would be unethical not to.

quote:

My name is Brian Boyko. I’ve had some time to think.

I have an addictive personality. And I became addicted to Immortal Vigilance.

For the past week, I have been wondering about how I would be able to keep up with the demands of IV when starting up my new job. I had been thinking about this when the big clusterfuck scene happened (we’ll not talk about that), except that I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was not anything IC or OOC but when DavidS said that he needed to stop because he had work in the morning, and the scene was going on forever....

And I realized not that the game wasn’t fun, but I was seriously worried about how my playing of IV would impact my real life. And I didn’t like what I was seeing.

I’m an addict. Right now, I feel angry, scared, have headaches and nausea - over the idea that I won’t get to play now that I’ve quit. I am near tears; and this is not a rational response, and it is not indicative of healthy behavior.

The very fact that I’m seriously considering going back and taking my characters off the deletion list is... actually the most powerful evidence to show why I shouldn’t.

I joined Immortal Vigilance when I hit a nadir in my life. I had tried to make a life for myself in New Zealand, only to find that I missed my friends terribly and was unhappy there. So, I decided to come back to Austin to be with my friends. But I came back without a job. I thought with my track record, I could get one quickly.

I was mistaken.

So, not only did I have an abundance of free time, but the fact was that without steady income, I couldn’t go out to see my friends. I couldn’t meet them at restaurants or movies, and even the gas money was too expensive to drive out and see them. (My car was used pretty much for trips to the supermarket and to job interviews, pretty much exclusively.) I remember actually backing out of going to see Harry Potter with my friends on Thanksgiving, claiming I was tired, but in actuality, I didn’t have any money for the ticket... and was too embarrassed to ask them to spot me.

I spent Christmas on Immortal Vigilance. I could very well have asked around to see if any of my friends would invite me over to have dinner with them... but I was both embarrassed to ask, and... I wanted to play the game. I had - no, I have a problem.

IV was very addictive for a number of reasons. It was free, it allowed me to burn up the massive surplus of free time I had, and it provided me with stimulating characters and conversations. And it was fantasy fulfillment - a coping mechanism for not having to think about the real world by involving myself in dreams. All of my characters represent some unrealised dream that I’ve had - Sue represented my dream of being a great thinker, Calvin, my dream of becoming a great entertainer, Mike, a great artist, and Starbutt, a great scientist. I lived, vicariously, through them, when living my real life was very hard.

I got too attached to this fake fantasy and became detached from the real world. Which was kind of okay, I think, because the real world for me for the past five months, kind of sucked. I really wasn’t missing anything. Not really. And so, I would often play 12-14 hours in a single day. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

But now, I have a job. And I have to consider the trade-offs between staying up late nights and arriving to work without falling asleep - and even if I say I won’t - I know that there will be a night where I stay up and play instead of heading to sleep to get up next morning. One hour turns into two, turns into three, turns into an all-nighter.

And I can see my friends. And now that I’m forced to start making decisions between hanging around with my real life friends at the improv theatre in real life, or making that scene where Calvin will take on the bad guys, or Sue will make a rousing speech... well...

It is very tempting - incredibly tempting, even now, as I write this - to blow off evenings out with my friends in exchange for another couple of hours playing a fictional character who hangs out with his fictional friends. (Not that you guys aren’t real, but you get what I mean.)

And so, if I gave into those urges, it would seriously affect the quality of my real life; it would interfere to such a degree that I would be worse off for it.

And the worst part is - I knew this. The moment I got a job should have filled me with joy. Instead, I thought: gently caress, how am I going to find time to narrate Long Beach now? And so I knew - not just in the back of my mind, but in the front of my mind as well - that I had to quit. I had to stop, somehow. (I don’t think I would have been successful “cutting down” because addicts just can’t -do- that.)

But I didn’t. Because I couldn’t. I kept playing. It still felt so warm and inviting to slip on Calvin’s skin, to be loved by ladies, envied by peers, clever and handsome. It felt great to have a life of fantasy and adventure.

And so, I kept playing.

The fact that my experiences were so drat good was one of the reasons that I kept playing... and in truth, your honest friendship and camraderie helped solidify my addiction. This is -not- your fault - you really are a great bunch of guys to play with. I mean that. But it did make it that much harder to tear myself away. I wasn’t just abandoning Calvin, I was also abandoning Tess’s schemes, I was abandoning Clive’s friendship, I was abandoning the responsibilities given to me by Cornwall and Caleb... as well as Estaban, and Leah, and Jack, and Helen, and the Baron and... I feel honest to god -guilt- over this. I feel like I murdered a friend; not just my friend, but many people’s friends.

The post in the room about deciding to quit the game at that moment wasn’t just because of the scene being a clusterfuck. Oh, sure, if the clusterfuck hadn’t have happened, I might not have done it -- but not for that reason.

What the clusterfuck did was give me an opportunity to re-evaluate what I was doing and why I was doing it. To take a step back and say: Wait, this is absurd. This was an oppertunity - an out, if you will - just enough slack to break the stranglehold my addiction had on me. And if I didn’t take it right then and there - take the drastic step to cut myself off... I don’t know if I ever would.

So I did. I ragequit, and now I feel horrible and lovely and massively going through withdrawal symptoms. I’m writing this to get my thoughts down on paper, to work through them.

I can’t play the game with you guys anymore. If I do, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop until I’ve really, really, let my addiction for this game mess up my real life.

I’m more than willing, of course, to be your friend - and you can reach me at brianboyko on AIM or Skype - and I hope you do. David S is actually local to me, I hope maybe he’ll take me up on my offer to go out and have a beer sometime.

But honestly, I have a serious problem, one that I can’t solve by continuing to bury myself in this fantasy world. If I could play in moderation, I most certainly would. I don’t think I can, really. And I’m very sorry about that. I’m sorry that my departure is sudden, but I do not think I could do it otherwise. And I’m very glad for the time I have spent with you all.

-- Brian Boyko

A Rambling Vagrant posted:

BUSH 2112 posted:

Yes, God forbid that everyone have an equal amount of speech. gently caress. Just loving goddamn. That's "wholly foreign to the first amendment." Burn this loving country down.

CheesyDog posted:

"I lost my virginity at 29. This is solid advice."

someone else posted:

I've always wondered what it's like for guys with hot sisters/moms/cousins.

lessig's dirty slut posted:

Well, you just don't act on it. Especially if your sister's married to the King. That's just asking for freakin' trouble.

karlor posted:

this is too much fun

Pokemaster #421 posted:

You know every once in a great while when you're having an incredibly lovely day something comes along and makes everything okay. This is not one of those things.

stoutfish posted:

goldmine

emfive posted:

He sure hurls himself out there doesn't he.

ymgve posted:

Not that it makes it much better, but that's a Game of Thrones reference. I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually have a sister that's married to a king.

Sheng-ji Yang posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBxm-LcQyt0

A video asking John McCain to explain the statements of staffer Michael Goldfarb, denegrating D&D players.

quote:

did you know i met my first african american friend playing D&D? did you know that i met my first gay friend playing D&D? did you know that i met a wonderful woman playing D&D? . . . Senator... did you know any of this, when you let Michael Goldfarb post those comments on your official campaign blog?

Prokhor Zakharov posted:

Man this dude is lucky lf got murdered.

CheesyDog posted:

I can't even tell if this is NSFW

Milky Moor posted:

no creepy mlp stuff

uh

are we sure this is the right guy?

Schnedwob posted:

Bronies United for Tolerance in Texas

Good Citizen posted:

(the public humiliation was being caught trying to have sex with a minor on 'to catch a predator')

Brian Boyko posted:

My take is up on my blog. There may not be criminal libel, but it was an action designed to harrass, possibly even put someone into physical harm by defaming a reputation. The guy could still be charged with something criminal.

My whole idea on this is that people are going to set up a database anyway – it might as well be one that is official and won’t be staffed by amateurs.

And I’m sure that the majority of pedophiles (i.e., those who are merely attracted to children and don’t *act* on those urges) don’t want to hurt children and are just attracted to them — but the entire point is that criminal pedophiles have hurt children. The creeps who just please themselves to the Olsen Twins movies aren’t hurting anyone or committing a crime. If those guys need help they’ll ask for it.

Same with beastiality – you can be attracted all you want to animals, but the minute you actually have intercourse with one, you’ve crossed the line.

Who Else posted:

Howdy, Mr. Takei. My name is Brian Boyko. I'm a geek running for State Representative in Texas. Literally. "Geek for Texas House District 136" is on my masthead. https://www.boykotx.org

Anyway, my big issue is Campaign Finance Reform, but I also support GLBT rights. My sister is gay, and anyone who treats her as less of a human being because of it will face all the wrath an older brother can muster.

I noticed that you're going to be coming to Austin, Texas in a few days for some book signings and photo ops. I'm currently e-mailing your publicist but I thought I'd try you directly through Facebook. I was wondering if I could use my photo-op with you in my campaign materials (I would *never* use anyone's image with my campaign without their permission.) Heck, it'd be really awesome if I could count you in as my first "official" endorsement, but you don't know me that well yet, and it might be too much to ask.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing you in Austin on Sept. 2nd.

-- Brian

XyloJW posted:

I was hoping more for hilarious photoshops and gifs than digging through his online history for the last 10 years.

Meatwave posted:

Oh. THAT's why he doesn't play professional sports.

Ponce de Le0n posted:

Is it possible to make his head even bigger?