Posted: Tuesday, December 16th 2008

I avoided MySpace and Facebook for a long time. But, recently, because of Facebook, I got to reconnect with a friend from highschool. Well, in our discussions we drifted back to a discussion of our pricipal, Beverly Barnhart. I related the story of how Mrs. Barnhart held my diploma so that she could tell my mother that I "would never amount to anything".

Well, I mispelled her name and Melissa called me on it. So, I googled Mrs. Barnhart to check. (Yes, I was wrong.) What I found was an article in the local paper announcing that Mrs. Barnhart had been honored for contributions to local education. I had to respond to the article. I couldn't avoid it. As a direct response to the assertion that I would never amount to anything I mentioned that I'd started my own business that's now globally known. This is the truth. I have fans on every continent except Antarctica. But, i didn't want to make such a claim if my own google search didn't hold up to scrutiny. So, I googled "Woody Hearn" so see what came up.

Most of what appears is your typical "minor internet celebrity" fare. Links to interviews, comments I've made, hotlinks to my artwork, etc. I amused myself by going to the links I didn't know about. Around about page 10, I found a link to rogerebert.suntimes.com. Now, I remember giving Roger Ebert the business after he slammed video games. What I didn't know is that the SunTimes had comandeered a comic and part of the associated writeup (along with other comments from the gaming community) to serve as a counterpoint to Mr. Eberts comments.

I was a bit shocked. How had I not known about this at the time? I remembered how out in the open I am with my work and my opinions. And I suddenly felt very, very exposed. I won't be changing how I handle myself and this comic. It is who I am. I just have to remember from time to time to remind myself that the world is watching.

Submitted by Woody | 5 Comments - last comment by: Woody

Posted: Monday, December 8th 2008

So a few months ago, one of the companies that were going to be advertising on GU commissioned some artwork for WAR ads directed at GU readers specifically. I did the work, and I know what they were expecting. Previous ads that I did the artwork for far out-performed other ads in the same campaign running on my site.

So, I did way more work than I was paid for. I took pride in the images I produced. The problem was that they wanted the artwork in a flash ad. Well, I can't do flash; so, I left that aspect up to my ad provider. So now, a couple of months after the artwork was finished, the flash ads finally started to appear on GU. They're uhmm... less than I expected.

The artwork that I took so much pride in is pixelated, compressed poorly, and moves through the flash banner in a way that doesn't really do the artwork justice (in my opinion). I guess I shouldn't complain though. If I knew how to make flash ads, this wouldn't be an issue.

Submitted by Woody | 2 Comments - last comment by: Mallakith