matt hackmann -> web developer

Matt's Glorious Walk for Free Money

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Life as an Internet Microcelebrity

Posted on in ypn digital double me nostalgia

If you frequent digg you no doubt saw this a while back. For those who don't enjoy clicking links to find out pertinent information, it's a page that calculates how "famous" you are on the internet. I'll say this isn't entirely foolproof. All calculations are done via google search results, but it gives you somewhat of an idea about your... uniqueness.

Anyways, for fun I fed the information for a search of "dxprog" in and it turns out I've got 10/10 points for being a microcelebrity. Cool, I suppose. But like I said, it's more about uniqueness and the fact that I've stuck with one online moniker through my entire time on the internet helps. It also helps that I am the only person going by dxprog. The little calculation wouldn't work nearly as well if there were others who went by that handle.

This may sound egeotistical, but every once and again I google myself just to see what's been indexed about me. I've kept a fairly open internet life so it's not hard to turn up a bunch of relevent results. First thing that pops up is this site, followed by my Digg profile, Digital Double/my Smackjeeves profile and a couple of videos. Sadly, the first video is the one that I loathe with all the hatred I can muster. But, that aside, this is a pretty good synopsis of myself as it stands currently.

The origins of my online presence, however, are seemingly lost forever in the Sea of Digital Bits we call the internet. All that exists of my very first web page is gone and since YPN has been screwed, none of that exists either. Actually, that's not true. YPN's entire history is sitting on a CD-R on my desk. Every last iteration, from sasq2 to Tetra 2. I've even got the unfinished beta of partyfish. But, I digress.

There are a few old things that are harbored on the same disc as said YPN stuff that I've lovingly added to the archives (see the 2003 stuff on the right there). Nothing terribly interesting or deep, but it gives some insight as to what I was doing at the time (not a whole hell of a lot). But, then again, I was only sixteen and not much was really expected of me.

Well, this has been yet another fun trip down memory lane. Not sure why I post these things, but in twenty years it'll be interesting to go back and read everything. I'll probably think about myself now what I think of my former self: what a douchebag.

Digital Double Reviewed!

Posted on in digital double

Well, it seems the fine folks over at SmackJeeves have decided to review my comic. In a nutshell, they lauded the artwork and design (which I thought sucked) and criticised the writing (which I also thought sucked). Here's the full review: http://smacktalk.smackjeeves.com/04-digitaldouble. Now for my take on things.

One criticism they mention is A Comic for All Peoples where my counterpart says that the comic is "too deep for a person of average intelligence." This was actually something devusb mentioned when talking about the 2001-WTF?!. Of course, this leads to their other big complaint which is too many in-jokes. This is one of the reasons I switched formats, the other being I find it easier to write more story-like stuff as opposed to the gag-a-day I had been shooting for. Maybe I should employ the use of a writer.

As said above, I am the first to admit that my writing usually sucks pretty bad. For starters, any comic bearing the name F5 is going to suck. These comics suck. Most everything else is pretty "meh" with the exception of a few.

Their final comment in the cons section about "being doomed to obscurity" I've pretty much comed to terms with. There are many people doing this that are a thousand times better at it than I. I've just been using it as a creative and emotional outlet and that's probably all it will continue to be. If fame comes with it, cool, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Digital Double Reloaded

Posted on in comic the matrix digital double work

Comic

Starting today I'm off hiatus. There'll be a few changes however. Firstly, Jimmy's that guy in the middle. His hair is much easier to draw now. Secondly, that would be Mary on the right. These two things were the main reason I went on hiatus. Thirdly, there'll be a format change. I'm going to do more story arcs instead of weak jokes and sad parodies. Finally, I'll be going with a every Wednesday update. Now that I'm full time at Wal-Mart it's difficult to update twice a week. I figure I should also be able to keep this up once I'm in college in the fall.

Comics and Updates

Posted on in art comic digital double apple full sail college final fantasy work csm

I haven't been posting here very much lately. Why? Well... I dunno :-P. Firstly, though, I'll get the comic links up to speed:

Plan 4 World Peace (filler)

The Fruit Saga, Parts 1, 2, and 3.

The fruit saga is more or less based on real life. I did purchase a Mac mini with my tax refund and, despite my years of rampant Mac hatred, I must admit that it is a nifty piece of hardware. I do have a copy of Vista installed (thanks to bootcamp), but I haven't booted out of OS X in several days. I haven't done much more than piddle around with stuff, but I'm going to start learning the APIs and maybe write a game.

Full Sail, my college of choice, has been "pestering" me lately and I guess I need to call them back and start getting things setup to sail away in the fall. I'm not sure what kind of course I want to take. Back when I heard about them it was game programming hands down, but I do enjoy drawing and would like to do more film projects. It's a real toss up. I may go with game programming yet because, of those three options, it's probably my strongest area. We'll see, though...

As far as work goes, it's pretty much usual. I'm cashier mostly, but since I recieved my CSM powers I've been doing that some too. Just yesterday, in fact, they pulled me off a register to cover for somebody whilst they went on break. I'm sitting in a pretty sweet position in that I can do almost anything in the store from CSMing, to cashiering, to cart pushing, to unloading trucks, etc.

Well, I'll close this blog post with a little piece of my art featuring Basch, my favorite character from FFXII:

Basch - He'll kick your ass