So we're testing out this page:

Official Newgrounds Broadcast Page

It's basically an embedded Ustream player and their halfway-decent chat window.

It's just something we threw together. Let me know what you think.

So we have a new item in the store and I wrote the description.

This post isn't so much designed to brag about that fact -- though I am tickled that I made a funny -- as it is to replace my last post which was two months old. Normally I don't concern myself with such things but none of us staffers has written in over two weeks and the blog list was looking stale.

So there you have it. One less older post, one new staff post, and a cool new toy to buy.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

P.S. See how I only used two commas in my entire post? That's how it's done. They're only used to separate thoughts or lists like I did in the second paragraph. Learn from my good example.

END OF BONUS LESSON.

http://nakrown.newgrounds.com/news/pos t/485697

Everyone should donate to support this awesome idea. The sooner he reaches the total, the sooner he can finish this damn thing already!

As found in the Writing Forum on April 1, 2010:

A pigeon once pooped on Kevin Bacon's head,
Then flew away with great dread,
Kevin Bacon had lots of fun,
As Kevin Bacon pulled out Kevin Bacon's gun,
and BANG! the pigeon was dead.

Fucking awesome. :)

Well, it's been far too long since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd take a few minutes out of my day to post how awesome I am. I guess it's a good a reason to write as any.

So I ran to work today. I'd posted over a year ago in the NG Forums about how I planned to start running again in the hopes of dipping below 200 lbs. before October 14th of this year. Of course, like most publicly-announced plans, that turned out to be a big failure.

I made a similar promise to myself again *this* year, and somehow it started working. The main difference this year is that it wasn't weight-related. I've paid no attention to the scale and haven't changed my diet one iota. What I *have* been doing is running steadily for the past two months, and I'm so proud of it that I've sometimes caught myself being that one-dimensional guy that talks about his running way too much. (Luckily that's why blogs were invented, so here you are.)

I started out run/walking to the office from my house, which is a little over 2 miles by the most direct route; I even brought hedge clippers with me one day and butchered a bunch of bushes that encroached on my sidewalk space. One day a car almost hit me and so I spit on it, causing said car to turn around, pass me, and park in a driveway up ahead, so I turned down a side street to avoid a confrontation; with my adrenaline really pumping, that was the first day I made it all the way without stopping, and I haven't had to stop since. I haven't looked back, and have increased my distances to 3.5, 4.3, and just today broke the 5 mile barrier.

Anyway, so that's the specific reason for this self-congratulatory post -- 5 miles of nonstop running. I took the long route to work and had to run on some shitty sidewalks along some major roads in Philadelphia, but it was totally worth it. I decided on Thanksgiving to run the 10-mile Broad Street Run but this was the first time that I felt I could actually do it. And yes, I realize there's a long way to go between now and then. Lots of running, and now I might toss dieting into the mix.

Thanks for the all the "watch out" PMs I've been getting in regards to this page http://z13.invisionfree.com/Duck_Divis ion/index.php?showtopic=1047 and my account getting "hacked".

The simple fact is that if someone were going to do something -- BESIDES a lot of needless photoshop work -- they would have done it as soon as they had access. They wouldn't wait around and give me time to change my password.

Speaking of passwords, I'm surprised to hear that a lot of people don't change their passwords regularly or at the very least have different passwords for different situations. I think I've had the same 10-digit password for my main email account for the past 10 years, but that's ALL I use it for. That way, I can be sure to get any password-change confirmation emails without them getting intercepted.

Anyway, it's all safe around here. And if it weren't, we always have our site backups. :)

As many of you know, my friend Nathan is making a documentary about the Internet.

To help finance this, he is selling limited edition Alien Hominid plush toys to help him finance it.

Go help support his movie and grab one before they sell out!

http://www.newgrounds.com/store/produc t/alien-hominid-plush

They're painstakingly, lovingly, sweatingly (but hopefully not on the doll LOL) hand sewn, and ALL of the proceeds go towards the funding of his movie!

Man oh man, I spent weeks dreaming about today.

The idea was first mentioned as a "what if..." when we were discussing how Google sold out to gain market share in China. The idea snowballed from there: What would Newgrounds actually be like if it were run by Chinese officials? Now we get to find out.

Anyway, getting back to my main point: the new site skin. I'll admit, it's a little abrasive. As the guy behind all the CSS, I was a little annoyed when I had to sit down with the Chinese officials and listen to their ideas about a new color scheme. I hate to admit that it's growing on me but still I wish they listened to just a little more of my input. Would it kill them to allow a little blue or green somewhere? Hell, maybe even a little black. At any rate, the entire re-skin took me only 8 hours total, including a little back-and-forth on the approval process.

The other changes are trivial. A few restrictions on free speech for starters, which is perfect since were were looking for a reason to close down the BBS anyway. We're phasing it out slowly by allowing our new Chinese users to post there for a while but it'll soon be gone for good; I just wish the moderators hadn't leaked the story until we were ready to break it ourselves. Anyway, people can still post on their user pages of course since it's more of a private area, though we may still have to censor speech there too. We can't have Newgrounds users saying just any old thing they want or we might get in trouble. Also, many user page banners are offensive so we had to fix a small percentage of those as well.

One major upside is that the Newgrounds Chat is finally up and running. We're still approving people as they come in, and there's a bit of a backlog while the moderators approve comments, but it's a definite step in the right direction.

I'm probably most psyched to work with my good friend Xi-Jinping on his first Flash submission (now that he can finally see the site in China). He did almost all the work, but I did the voices. The guy has a sick sense of humor but he's right: life's too short to be worried about offending someone.

Speaking of which, it's a little disconcerting to me that Tom is going along with the new rules about adult submissions. There are some pretty funny movies that I can't watch right now, but Tom assures me it'll be for the best in the end. Plus, there doesn't seem to be too many people in the BBS complaining about the content restrictions anyway. I guess that means no-one has a real problem with the decision and I should just accept it already.

Well, hope everyone is as psyched about the new changes as I am!

OMG lets see how fast these babies go.

And I probably had more fun than I should have taking pictures of these things.

Josh and I were spied in P-Bot's forums today testing out his new formatting. Josh played the role of the feisty robot and I the moderator who eventually deleted the rogue thread. There's no way to *actually* test the automated post until it goes live at midnight, but everything checks out when we post it manually.

Wish the little guy luck. :)