Hey everyone, my computer is now fully functional again, but spilling water into it did delay the next episode of Freeman’s Mind. I’m working to get the next one out as soon as possible, in the meantime, I’m putting up an audio interview I’ve been meaning to post for a few weeks now. Here are the links:

Interview web page

Direct link to interview

This interview was actually recorded in summer of 2012, before the whole Machinima.com fiasco started, so I don’t know how much of what I said is still accurate. It was later posted by the group in late April of this year, which I delayed releasing because Freeman’s Mind was coming back, then forgot about for a couple weeks. But I have remembered and am posting it now while I stall for time in getting more Freeman’s Mind done!

Also in this interview it sounds like a robot imposter of myself filled in for me; I have no memory of how this happened. I hope it answered the questions correctly.

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

There have been some, uh, complications with the next episode:

Yesterday evening I was recording more lines for Freeman’s Mind and in my infinite wisdom, I kept a glass of water nearby to drink in between lines, like I have for dozens of episodes. It turns out this was not the best idea I’ve ever had. The water spilled and some of it splashed into my system, causing it to malfunction. But good news! I was not electrocuted by this because I ran out of the room to shut off the circuit breaker.

I’m uncertain of the damage inflicted, right now I have the system disassembled and drying out thoroughly. I plan to start testing parts later today once everything is completely dried out and assess the damage.
 

FOR COMPUTER HARDWARE PEOPLE:

My guess is I’ve fried the motherboard, but who knows. The circuit breaker did not trip, the fans kept spinning (much faster, like on boot), and I never saw any sparks or smelled any burning. This suggests there’s a chance I haven’t completely fried everything, but I won’t know that until later. I think most of the water touched the CPU heatsink, with only a few drops going elsewhere. Ironically, I’ve never done system water cooling because I was afraid this exact scenario could occur. I have parts for a secondary system that is missing a power supply; I plan to use that to test the components one by one later. Worst case scenario I also fried my videocard, soundcard, RAM, RAID expansion card, and power supply, but I think that’s unlikely for the amount of water that actually got inside. Also, while I spotted one or two drops on the top of the hard drives, I have no reason to suspect there was any permanent damage to them, and even if there was, I have a mirror RAID set up, so it would have to take out both at once.
 

FOR EVERYONE ELSE:

Unlike past computer problems I’ve had, which can mostly be attributed to goblins, this one is just sheer stupidity on my part. I won’t know the full extent of the damage until later, there’s going to be a lot of testing to do. Despite what you see in the movies, there’s no reason to think this caused me to lose all my data. In any event, I know how to fix this, but it will take time, especially if I need to order parts I can’t get locally. Best case scenario this won’t affect Freeman’s Mind from being released next week. Worst case scenario, it will probably delay everything by about a week. Either way, I think I’ll use a water bottle with a cap from now on instead of a glass.

 

EDIT: Amazingly, almost everything still works, although my CPU cooler fan did not survive. I’ve ordered a new one and it should be here sometime this week.

 

ADHD version: Water and computers are not friends. The next Freeman’s Mind might be a little late.
 

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Blip.tv link (this one helps me more)

Youtube link

(Downloadable copy will be up a later date)

Freeman’s Mind continues, this time with no singing. This is a slower episode, since the game directly dictates the pace of them, but I think it came out pretty well. For the purists complaining that one of the game sequences never triggered, you can blame Half-Life: Source, I didn’t do anything to disable it. Please continue to spread the word that Freeman’s Mind is not dead, it was just being held hostage in a basement at gunpoint, but managed to escape and is now at a new location.

I plan to continue the informal schedule of having a new FM episode about every two weeks. In the extra time between releases, I’m still working on multiple side projects, a few of which will come to fruition within a few weeks from now. In any event, you can expect a lot more stuff to come out this summer.

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

Hey people, I have some new updates and a minor promotion to make. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I am still for hire if people want to pay me for voice acting, writing, or something else related. Well one group actually approached me about “hiring” me to play a game with them for a commentary series they’re doing.

I have to admit, the concept of charging people for me to play a game with them never even occurred to me and it would seem pretentious if I had come up with the idea myself. I would feel guilty about this if I haven’t been so busy with various projects that I’ve had very little time for gaming myself. Also, I decided I am ABSOLUTELY fine with establishing a precedent that I will play games for money if somebody wants to pay for it. I just don’t want people to think that I feel entitled to some sort of payment for playing a game. On the contrary, I enjoy interacting with fans (even if I’m months behind on my email replies) and will always do so for free, even though there can be delays. The way I see it, what I’m being paid for is for time I would normally spend working on something else and I’m unfortunately very busy these days.

Anyway, part of the deal was some extra publicity for their new series, so here it is:

Rest of the playthrough videos

It’s just myself running around with the creator “Loremaster Nojah” and his friend “Sarahon” trying to get through the old mod “They Hunger” running Sven Co-op. It goes on for a few hours, split into different episodes. If you need to kill time, these guys have you covered.

This video may also gives you an idea of why Freeman’s Mind is not done live. This whole video is extremely casual with a minimum (if any) amount of editing. When doing things impromptu, my ratio of saying something entertaining is more like once every 3 minutes rather than once every 10 seconds the way it is with FM. Also my microphone quality is pretty poor in this video as I normally use a handheld mic to record videos, but I just used a webcam mic I had for this so I could play hands-free. On that note, if anyone has recommendations for a gaming headset with good mic quality for hands-free recording (especially with low mic puff) in the future, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

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In other news, I’ve made a lot of updates to the website to the different sections, with updated information the FAQ, donations, subtitles, etc. I’ve also added an entire “Ross For Hire” section where you can now see some of the jobs I’ve taken so far freelancing. Not all of the mods / videos are out yet however, but feel free to browse.

Finally, I’m aiming to have the next Freeman’s Mind out sometime Tuesday. While I am making no promises, it’s my aim to have a new FM out approximately every weeks after that (with more stuff coming out in between later on).

 

ADHD version: Ross plays games with some dudes! Website has more words on it! Next FM episode will probably be Tuesday!

Hey everyone, while I’m guessing most of the people who watch these videos aren’t lawyers, I wanted to at least see if there were any out there who would be interested in giving me a hand. I’ve been trying to contact Machinima.com for about a week and a half regarding some important matters and have not only been unable to get a reply from their legal department (which this concerns), but I can’t even get a DATE when I can expect to hear from them. The last time I showed patience with Machinima.com it didn’t work out very well, so now I’m trying to expedite the process.

I’m not even sure what I can reveal about this situation publicly, but I’m looking for some legal advice regarding my video rights and Machinima.com engaging in what I would call “less than legal” activity that’s affected me personally. I am not looking to go to court over anything, in fact I wish to avoid that if possible, however it’s looking like I might need some sort of legal notice sent to them otherwise it could be months (again) before anything gets done.

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of money, so I would either need some pro bono help or at some sort of discount. Someone who has experience in contract law would probably be best. Anyway, if you think you might be able to help, please contact me at [email protected].

Everyone else: I’m still working on more videos!