Fair Warning: TEXT ONLY, NON-Bondage, and I’ll be rambling a bit here.  STOP reading if you’re looking for pretty girls bound and gagged in varying stages of dress.  🙂

So…Violent Video Games.  They’re creating armies out of our kids with them, right?  The games are corrupting our youth, turning them savage, foul-mouthed beasts who do nothing but brutalize women and prepare them for militarized service by running them thru combat simulations on par with anything the Pentagon puts out these days.  Video Games are the reason kids are growing up to be monsters…they create serial killers and maggots who kick puppies just because they feel like it, right?

Only because parents let it happen.  Hell…they participate in the creation, even!

I’m reminded of a PSA from a few years…OK, a few DECADES ago (I’m an old fart), where a parent confronts his child about drugs he found in the boy’s room.  How did you get involved with that?  How did you get started on drugs?  “From YOU, all right?!  I learned it from WATCHING YOU!”  Dad shrinks back in horror.  Video games aren’t too far removed from that, what with parents allowing TV screens to raise America’s youth, then crying “foul” when they don’t like the result.  Parenting, it seems, is fastly becoming a lost art, and when the child reacts negatively to the way mom and dad are providing them to be, it’s easy to lash out at an industry rather than address the actual PROBLEM…curse the darkness rather than shine a spotlight upon it.

Let’s take a step back.  Let me tell you about me a bit.  Born and raised on vid games…my first console was a “Pong” machine that had the controllers built into it.  The wonderful gaming device was made by Coleco…and it started me on a wonderful journey.  Graduated from Pong to the Atari 2600…then to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)…then to the Sega Genesis (“Master System”…tho it’ll always be a GENESIS to me).  Something happened around here for me…it was at this time that Mortal Kombat started rolling out…and I was stunned by it.  FREAKING AWESOME!!  You could knock your opponent’s head clean off…pull his spine out of his body…send him falling into a pit filled with spikes…DAMN!!  It was amazing!  But it was all FANTASY and I KNEW it.

I was over 18 and working when MK first hit stores…WITH the “M” rating attached to it….”M”. meaning, for MATURE audiences only; much the same for an “R” rating for movies.  I knew what I was getting into and knew what was going on within that little world…you have to wonder about younger minds, tho it’s been proven in study after study that games DON’T affect little Junior’s mind at all.  Anyway…after the Genesis, I moved to Playstation 1 (PSX), then Game Cube, then Playstation 2 and 3 (haven’t bought a 4 yet…and don’t even ask me about that Orwellian XBOX ONE…the “XBONE” is a different rant altogether).  I came up good and am not  a stalker/killer of mass-proportions because of all the “M” rated games I play, right?

My point here is this.  With the creation of the “M” rating and the ERSB for the purpose OF rating games (which parents hammered for and the gaming industry self-created in response), a system was created to keep kids from adult material.  Stores are not allowed to sell “M” rated games to kids, just like liquor stores are not allowed to sell booze or cigarettes to minors; it’s treated in the same fashion.  So…if kids are getting “M” rated games, parents are the ones buying them.  Which leads me to a tweet I sent on my Twitter this morning…

https://www.donotcall.gov/

Bit of an “Editorial” here.  I had a cell phone outage recently and it made it difficult for friends to contact me.  So…to make things a bit easier, I got myself a land line from another carrier as a backup.  Only ONE PERSON has this number other than myself…and yet the land line has been ringing practically nonstop.  Just this morning between 9 am and 10 am, I’ve had to answer it three times.  Why?

Telemarketers.

EVERY time…telemarketers.  One of them last night was trying to sell me outdoor window blinds for a home when I live in a frigging APARTMENT; and that one happened at 8 pm!  They neither know nor care who they’re calling and who’s lives they’re disrupting, nor do they care about the hour of day they do it in.

If you’re being swamped (like I am) by telemarketing calls and you haven’t done this already, give the above link a click and register your lines (land and cell…don’t let naysayers fool you; it works for that as well) on the “Do Not Call” list; it works great!  The only problem is, it takes 3 days to become active, so I’m thinking I’m just gonna disconnect the line from the wall for another couple days while I wait for it to kick in for me.  I stoopidly forgot to do this when I arranged for the line to be set up, so now I’m getting bombarded by these assholes.  It’s just a shame that the one other person who knows this number couldn’t use it if he wanted to because right now, I just don’t want to have to hear it ringing anymore; I’m past annoyed and snapping at people I shouldn’t really be snapping at.  :/  They’re just doing their jobs, after all…even if they are taking money just to annoy people.  Telemarketers should be run off the face of the earth, in my now-angry opinion…DNC is a good way to get that started.

Register your number now if you haven’t…for the sake of peace of mind.

Tolstoy

Before I do the “Saturday Sneak Peeks”, a bit of a “Tolstoy” from me…wow.  What a “moment” when playing last night; gotta relate it to you all.  Talk about misunderstandings exploding into violence…we’re talking Fallout 3 here.  Setting the stage…Fallout 3 is set in 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war between the US and China destroyed the world and left it an apoclayptic nightmare…think “Mad Max”.

So, anyway…last night I came across the “Anchorage” quest: one of the groups in Fallout 3 (The Outcasts) have come across an armory that they’d like to get into…problem is, it’s sealed and the only way to break the seal on the room is to run a holographic simulation of the freeing of Anchorage, Alaska from Chinese occupying forces from the days of the war.  It’s a virtual reality type simulation…you’re cast into the role of a 2077 soldier fighting to free Alaska from the Chinese.

I run thru it ok (other than the game freezing and locking up on the console, which is actually normal…bless Bethesda for devoloping such a beautiful but flawed game) and it’s a FUN simulation; very strategic in it’s approach and I love situations that let me be a touch violent and THINK too (lol)…very well done!  Anyway…I finish the simulation…all that’s left is the opening of the armory and giving me a payment for helping them…this is where things got wild.

From the beginning, it was obvious that they were split on that…there were some members of the Outcasts that said that for my participation in opening the vault, I was deserved a share of what was in there…but the other half of the room was of the opinion that my usefulness to the cause was over and I should be…eliminated…so that they could keep everything.  I’m in the middle of raiding the armory and palming the two sepcial armors (Chinese Stealth armor and winterized T-51B Power Armor, to be specific), and all of a sudden, I hear gunfire and see that my character is taking damage.  Quicklike, I duck behind a corner, pull a weapon and start fighting…and when the dust clears, I figure I hit one of them once or twice…and the four of them all killed each other.  :/  Two of them were of each mini-faction…two wanted to be fair to me, two wanted me dead…while I was raiding, they got all shooty with each other and basically finished each other off.

Just…whoa.  :/

One of the more stunning moments I’ve had in a game…good guys shooting good guys and killing the hell out of each other.  Just…wow.  The Outcasts are nuts.  So, I ended up getting the armors of the Outcasts as well…but stunned to the core by the way the whole thing ended…I so didn’t see that coming.  :/

Tolstoy

Really quickly before I do the Saturday Sneak Peeks.  🙂

I’ve talked with some folks about my quandry, and I think I might’ve missed getting a point across.  I know having my stuff compared to Dave’s is an honor and the comment was meant as a compliment.  Fact is, I couldn’t ask for a better mentor as Dave has been nothing short of awesome to and for me.

What threw me, however, was when someone asked me if Dave did the rigging FOR me.  Unless it’s a Guest Gallery that I arrange with the rigger beforehand and give that rigger full credit and links back to his site, everything that’s on TucsonTied is done by me.  TucsonTied is about my journey thru bondage and my riggings with my models and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  🙂  Just like in writing, “Ghost Riggers” are out there and that’s all fine and good…but when you see a TucsonTied pic, it’s done BY TucsonTied…and the fact that someone saw my work and thought I hired Dave to “ghost rig” for me disturbs me a bit; I’m gonna have to take steps in the future to make us more different.  That’s all.  🙂

One of the reasons I get so bent out of shape when people re-post my pics on social sites without the watermark on them is the pic loses my identity…and that’s what threw me for such a huge loop.  However, talking with a few friends, I’ve been able to put some sense to it…it’s an over and done iussue.  🙂

Tolstoy

Huh.  I’m not sure how to take this.  :/

I belong to several Yahoo Groups on the net and I post to them somewhat like I do here…sending out samplers so people can see what’s upcoming from TucsonTied.  At one of those groups, somebody asked me if the rigging I did was mine, or if Dave Annis did it.  :/  Really, now.  I’m sure it was meant as a compliment…but it bugs me that he and I are starting to blend so much, people wonder if I’m doing my own rigging.  Kinda an affront to my “rigger pride”, really.

:/

Was it meant as a compliment?  Of course it was…I know that; but I do want me work to stand on it’s own and not wind up with me being, “The Next Dave Annis”.  I’m really torn about this…it’s very distracting.  Gotta ponder this some more…why don’t you all check out this pic of Lexi Richelle from my early days while I ponder this…

Tolstoy

Lexi Richelle

Yes, there’ll be a pic, but first you get to hear me ramble.  🙂  It won’t be TOO long…but something is on my mind.

Got contacted by a FetLife member last night and asked to look at a picture.  He said he found it on the net, so it HAD to be for free, right?…and that he was told by another FetLife member that it may have been one of my pics; if I’d like it removed, just say so.  Grrrrrr.

Over the years, my stance on copyright has softened to some degree.  I used to be, “Kill ’em all and let God sort it out,” about it…remove that pic, how DARE you have it up without my say so!  Nowadays?  Not so much.  I’d prefer that you contact me and ask if it’s all right…after which, I’ll say sure, but put the model’s name in your caption of the pic, credit me as being the photographer, and leave a link to my website so folks can find me if they want to see more of my work; pretty damn reasonable, all things considered.  I have the right to BE an ass about it and outright say no…I prefer not to.  Mark my word, I can and do file DMCA paperwork with sites to have my work removed when I feel it’s necessary….I just don’t feel it’s necessary as much as I used to.

But the case I’m talking about above?  TOTALLY different and TOTALLY out of left field.

It was a “manipulation” of the work.  It was one a pic of one of my models from my first shoot with her, my website watermark removed, and another site’s watermark put on it.  Oh…and also, her head was Photoshopped off and a pic of Jessica Alba’s head (tape gagged, yet) was in it’s place.  My pic was manipulated to be one not of the model bound and gagged…but of Jessica Alba bound and gagged…complete with my website identifiers removed and someone else’s put in it’s place.  :/  I looked a little further in my pics and found two other fakes like this of my work…kinda distressing.

I asked the member to remove them and he did.

I look at it like this…doing this manip job stole the identity from the pic.  It wasn’t my pic of her anymore, but someone else’s work.  Y’know what?  Get your own damn model and take your own damn pics of her to remove her head and face to do celebrity manips with. Dammit.

Look…I know you all are on social sites like FetLife, Facebook and others that have pic and video postings…frankly, I’d rather you not post my stuff up there without my knowing it.  You can argue until you’re blue in the face that piracy does nothing, but it does.  It picks my pocket daily.  This isn’t just a hobby for me, it’s the way I make a living thru life and pay my bills, and when you post my content freely to sites so people who want it can get it for free, it curtails my ability to live.  And when you manipulate my shit so it’s not even mine anymore…fuck, that’s the ultimate insult.  It’s not “honoring” me, it’s removing me from my own work and it’s fucking wrong.  Just don’t do it all right?  And the next time you hit a torrent site and download content of mine from it…congratulations, you’ve stolen a meal from my mouth and the mouths of other producers who’s work is up on that site.

Rant over.  🙂  Pic is of Drea Morgan…looking at that gorgfeous girl brightens my dampened spirits.  🙂  More work of her and REAL LIFE models can be seen at: TucsonTied.com and StacieSnowBound.com.

Tolstoy

Drea Morgan

Man, the world hates me today, I tell you what.

I pay my two major bills online…just easier for me that way.  The Postal Service can’t reaise the price of e-mailing payments like they can on raising stamps, no?  😛  So…I go to login for my cell phone company…doesn’t recognize my login; I have to go thru the whole “Change My Password” BS…seems I have to do that everytime I visit them.  🙁  Go to pay my Internet bill, and that goes off without a hitch…until I get an error message for the confirmation.  So, I call them and tell them about today’s payment which, online, my account said it needed to be made…and found that I’d already paid on the 21st.  So, I just paid the bill twice in one month!  🙁  Well…it’ll go down as a credit; they won’t bother me again until March at least…lmao!

Well…next up was Best Buy and some photo paper for my printer.  Best Buy has the best price for paper (but ironically enough the WORST price for ink; they want 10% more than literally EVERY other store in town), so I got what I needed and was gonna browse the store a bit before heading home.  Stopped by the camera area and saw my new baby on display and smiled.  I’m SO happy with that camera!  I held the floor model for a bit, then remembered that I wanted to look into buying a spare battery for it (nope, it doesn’t use AA batteries, but a battery pack).  “Can I help you?” says the happy camera-counter-guy…no, I reply; I’m fine.  🙂

So, I go over to the battery area and start looking over the batteries, and I hear another, “May I help you?”  Not unusal…it’s a big store, so I expect to be asked that by sales people at least three times per visit (tho after 5, I get annoyed and leave the store).  Well, I look up at who asked it…it was the SAME mo-fo that asked me this not 10 seconds ago!  “No, I’m fine…” I reply; a little agitation showing in my voice, I imagine.  Then he hits me with the question that really set me off…

“Are you SURE?”

REALLY?!  Seriously, now.  Do I look brain-damaged enough to not know if I need help or not?!  This day and age of “Customer Service” can bite my oversized wing-wang…it’s not “Service” if a sales person follows you from department to department offering to clean up your breath with a mint and polish your shoes for you if you’ll JuuuuuuuuuuuST make that purchase!  I said I was fine…leave me the fuck alone, dipshit!  What, do I look like a theft threat to you or something???

Rant over…thanks for the breathing room.  🙂

Tolstoy

Just musing about the overpowering awfulness that is Twitter.  :/  I’ve been attacked online before (haven’t we ALL?)…I’ve even been the attacker; 99% of these incidents happened on Twitter.  I know I keep a widget on the side of this blog for you all to follow my tweets…but honestly, don’t expect to see much outside of “Follow Friday” postings and know that my heart is here.

It’s not even only in the industry I work in…politicians, wrestlers, sports stars, movie stars…it seems the thing to do these days is to go to Twitter and bash people.  Disturbing…I thought we professional people all left the playground years ago and stopped tossing “Nyah, nyah,nyah, nyah-nyah” around…I guess I was wrong.  :/  And I hope I’m not sounding like a morals teacher looking down upon the rest of the tweeters…like I say, I’ve put my fangs out on Twitter as well.  It’s the nature of the site, it seems…it’s like a bitching ground where people go to trash talk…stupid.

OK, muse over…pic of Stiletto from the early days for your time.  🙂

Tolstoy

Stiletto

Went to BestBuy today…it’s only by the grace of good will in me that more sales people didn’t get strangled…lol.

I understand good customer service (I better, or I won’t BE in business, right?), but is it necessary to hit on me as a customer FIVE FCUKING TIMES?!  They must be bored at BB.  😉  EVERY time I hit a new part of the store, a helpful pair of hands/eyes was there to ask me if I need help…it’s exhausting saying “No” a billion times in one visit.  Funny part is…soon as I actually DO need help, there isn’t a soul around!  Am I alone in that?  😛  Prolly not.

I know I was rude a time or so (not massively rude, mind you…just didn’t answer when the 5th sales associate asked me if I needed help), but dammit; if I’m on a quest to find something and I fairly know where it is in the store, asking for help defeats my navigation skillz and my pride won’t let me have that.  In short…”Pull over and ask for directions…we’re lost!” “No, we’re NOT lost…I know where we are and can get us out without asking for directions!”  Except in my case, I DO know where things are in their store.  MOST of the time.  😉  I will ask for help after about the third casing of the store…but feel damn defeated after doing so.  😉

Had this happen again at our local “99 cent” store.  they remodeled it and changed shit all around (to make room for a “More than 99 Cents” area…lol), and now I don’t know where ANYTHING is.  This time at least, I was able to find what I wanted (a 16 foot tape measure)…but I had to hunt it down…GRRRR.

Rant over.  😉

Tolstoy