Last Words - Mandalorian Mercs and Spiralmind

The last two interviews produced by Mike Cervantes for Augmented Reality feature the charitable local cosplay group the Mandalorian Mercs and the local comic book company Phi-3 Comics, creators of Spiralmind.

So Says The Captain - Early EP-CON

The Captain is at the El Paso convention Center on Friday morning, and he's WAY too early for EP-CON 2012. But hey, there's gotta be someone out there to interview, like "Dog Tacos" author Terry McChesney, The staff of Spaced Out Creations and Dos & Tattoos, Cara Nicole the "AZ Powergirl," and Valeria Contreras of "Jaime's Jungle."

So Says The Captain - Instant Game Gratification

The Captain takes a moment to discuss video game economics. How many games do you own, and out of those games, how many do you actually play? Let The Captain engage you in a little game of thought.

So Says The Captain - George Liquor

The Captain Returneth with a new name for his show, and a discussion about a cartoon character you may not have realized you knew anything about. Watch and be educated!

To support John Kricfalusi's Kickstarter campaign visit: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1056985656/john-ks-cans-without-labels

Music by Shonen Neko Takaya, visit his YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ShonenNekoTakaya

The Captain's Couch - EPCON 2012

The Captain, Mike Cervantes, paid a visit to Wal-Mart as well, but he don't get to stand next to some fancy bat-vehicle. No, he's gotta stand out by some girly bikes. Well, the Captain's gonna make the best of it and bring around a list of local talent to TELL you why you need to be at this year's El Paso Comic Convention.

For more info visit: http://www.ep-con.com/

The Captain's Couch - Introduction

Mike Cervantes comes back from a long hiatus to....well, it's kind of hard to say. Just listen to the video and make up your own mind about it.

Copyright 2012 Augmented Reality Productions.

Absolution

The country is sad today. What should have been an exciting day for all fans of comic books and the movies based on them is now marked by the kind of weariness that can only come from the enactment of a national tragedy.

Like with the last nationally significant article I wrote, about the January 18^th internet blackout, there isn’t really much left to say about the event itself: An individual, allegedly 24 year old University of Colorado student James Holmes, entered a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” dressed in ballistics gear and opened fire, killing 12 and leaving 59 injured. Upon being apprehended, the suspect allegedly made claim that he was inspired by the films, making the claim that he himself was in fact The Joker.

All day my personal Facebook wall has been alight with news of the shooting with friends and acquaintances all bringing attention to the tragedy, and for a while, I struggled over whether or not I too was going to have something to say about it. I committed something pretty disappointing myself the moment I heard about the crime. I got on the threads of several of my friends and I made the statement “What is wrong with people in Colorado?”  I was trying to indicate there has to be some civil unrest, or some element of the law in the state, like their current stance on gun control, (which is incidentally, stricter than it is in our home state of Texas) that was to blame for this tragedy.

The response to my comments however, were negative, and rightfully so. I respectfully agree with every response given to a statement like that, but the strange thing about it is, I agreed with all the statements made against me. Of course, this is an isolated incident, and the actions of a whole state cannot be blamed. I know that stereotyping a group doesn’t work to create a solution. I realize that raising flags like gun control won’t undo what’s already been done. I forgot that for a moment, though. I, like a lot of people are mentally working to make sense of the whole unfortunate circumstance.

So, after spending the entire morning lowering my personal reputation on Facebook, I remembered a similar incident earlier in my life: 9/11 happened when I was in my first semester of Community College, and while I was drawing a still life in one of our classes, another instructor I didn’t know, took our class aside and told us all to design posters expressing our feelings about the tragedy. Now, since I was just barely beginning art class, I didn’t think I had the skill or ability to make a real statement. Her only response was “Sometimes you have to stop being a student, and start being an artist."

I drew what turned out to be a graphite bleeding heart filled with fissures like a fault line with the planet Earth as its left ventricle on a piece of oddly torn butcher paper. It seemed corny to me then…It still does to me now, but nonetheless I learned a lesson: when something that happens that effects us all, we should all try to do what we can to make things better, even if it’s something as insignificant as giving away a day of art class.

So that’s why I finally made up my mind to write this, but more important than my decision is the message I want to send everyone:

Speculation, comments, discussions and debates on Facebook serve their own purpose, but when a tragedy like this happens it should make everyone want to get up and make everyone create something.

It doesn’t matter if it’s private or public, small or big…It just has to make a statement. Some artists are already doing this by creating fan-art and symbols like the Bat-Ribbon logo that have been appearing on Facebook. But there should be more. If you’re a cosplayer, a photographer, a gamer, a videographer, or a musician…If you make 3D models or plush dolls or even internet memes, you should put your feelings about the event in whatever form best suits you. If you can raise money for charity with what you do, by all means do so, but it’s not a requirement.

Some people are debating whether it’s appropriate that images of Batman should appear in these works: I say absolutely. After all, Batman is the ultimate symbol against the senseless and wanton perpetration of criminal acts like this. If this individual considers himself to be the Joker, then everyone who considers this to be wrong is, by all means, Batman.

What’s more important than the content of any of these works, however, is the message it sends: we do not approve of these sorts of actions. We do not want our community and our way of life beaten down by the act of one misguided individual who was inspired to commit murder and atrocity in a realm where we usually are inspired to uphold justice and what is right.

Just remember this quote from Batman: Absolution. “We impose meaning on the chaos of our lives. We create form, morality, order. It's a choice we have to make every second of every minute of every day.”

The Future of Augmented Reality

This past June 23, we at Augmented Reality had out first year anniversary. I say “had” instead of “celebrated” because we had no particular party, private or public, and we didn’t make any special videos or articles made in order to commemorate the event. In fact, we haven’t posted many articles at all lately, and for that I have nothing to say other than we’re sorry. 

A lot has happened in the personal lives of my contributors and I the past few months. Some of them are minor, some of them are major, and some of them had more impact on us than they really should have. One of those types of changes occurred around February, during my last semester of college at UTEP, when my friend and fellow contributor Alicia left her apartment to move into the spare room of my house. A good amount of my personal time has been spent adjusting to the changes that can only come from sharing a home with someone. Naturally, the fact that I was working on graduating from university added to my work load, but one thing that was most impactful for me was the fact I’d lost my job as a file clerk at a local grade school; a job that I’d held on to for four years. 

A lot of time that would have gone into the blog has been put into the adjustments that we’ve had to make. Alicia and I are both the main editors of this blog and in the past few months we’ve both had to put aside our responsibilities a lot in order to…make life happen. In addition to that we’ve taken on a new contributor, John Browning, the “BlackWing Magician,” and we’ve been hard at work producing his directorial project “Yu Gi Oh: The Blood of Raizel.” The production of the film has been an emotional mixed bag for all involved. There have been good times and trying times on set for both the crew and any members of the cast we’ve brought in from El Paso’s numerous other organizations. 

Thankfully, the film is as of now complete life is slowing down, and everyone in the AugReal crew are optimistic about one another and their ability to continue forward working as a team. As for me, well, I’ve graduated UTEP with my Creative Writing and Communication degree, and while I’m still between jobs I’ve made a significant amount of income doing some freelance online communications work.

When I think about the future of the blog, however, all I can think about is how much more we can all accomplish. I want Augmented Reality to do its best to provide the latest information on all of El Paso’s great events, conventions and local business. I want Augmented Reality to produce unique and original content for the web, and I want Augmented Reality to be the go-to place for all the greatest information related to fandom this great city of El Paso can offer. In order to do that, I have to be the person who is willing to change. The past few weeks I’ve been figuring out to do that, and I’ve busied myself with making apologies, negotiating new deals with some associates, and planning a feature for the blog that, well…I don’t want to spoil the surprise. 

So, for all of you that are looking forward to some sort of affirmation from Augmented Reality on its first anniversary, here it is: the next few months re going to be filled with all new material, brand new content, and brilliant new ideas that are going to be like nothing we’ve ever produced before. We are already hard at work on some unique and original ideas, and with the addition of new member John Browning’s directorial skills, we will be bringing out some great original content. We’re still very closely associated with many local conventions, shops, and event-makers in the city, and we’ll continue to provide a unique look at all the truly unique and interesting events that El Paso has to offer.

Here’s to the future of Augmented Reality.

Marginal Gaming - Women Written Wrong

 In his latest article for 8bitfix, Mike Cervantes explores just what went wrong with the Tomb Raider & Hitman Absolution trailers and the "Tropes Vs. Women" controversy. What are we all getting wrong when it comes to portraying female characters in games?

Check it out on 8bitfix.

Marginal Gaming - In The Next Installment

 Mike Cervantes' latest article for 8bitfix tackles the pros and cons of episodic gaming. Was the attempt to make Sonic 4 an episodic series the reason for its downfall?

Check it out on the 8bitfix website.

Marginal Gaming - Putting the Content before the Download

In Mike's latest article for 8bitfix, Mike tackles the issue of on-disc DLC. Do we deserve a product for free just because we learned of a company's unfair attempt at fleecing the consumer?

Check it out on the 8bitfix website.

The AR Supercam - Live-Action Fruit Ninja

Introducing the Augmented Reality Supercam, the free-roaming behind the scenes camera that captures the behind the scenes action that happens on the blog. Like that one time we all went out and sliced a bunch of fruit with a katana blade. Special appearance by Wintercon founder Mitsu Bloodmoor.

Marginal Gaming - A Grain of Salt

In Mike's latest article for 8bitfix, Mike takes a moment to consider opinions about gaming on the internet. Which ones are valid? Which ones aren't valid? And most importantly, how can you tell the difference?

Check it out on the 8bitfix website.

Perseus and Quickshot: Robo-Tech Support

Perseus is feeling a little run-down, so he decides to make a call to tech support, and it looks like his production assistant, Chuck is actually being helpful for once...Or is he?

Bringing Up The Past

When I was about 20 years old, I was a student at El Paso Community College. I belonged to a creative writing and poetry club, and while I was there, I first met Ray Ramos. Ray, as some of you may know, is the founder and editor-in-chief of Adversary Comix, one of El Paso’s many local independent comic entities. At the time I met Ray, Adversary was still in its infancy, and it had a small stable of artists and writers making preliminary plans to turn their imaginative ideas into original comics.

Hopeless opportunist that I am, I expressed an interest in joining up with Adversary Comix. I showed him some samples of my artwork: spindly little drawings of cartoons with bug-eyes, Simpsons-esque overbites and bodies the width of twigs. Despite the fact I’ve been drawing since I was a child, I’ve never quite broken out of an art style any more stunning than your average episode of “Home Movies,” which just happened to be what my art-style was frequently compared to. What caught Ray’s attention more was my writing which, despite still being less developed than it is as I write this article, still contained a good amount of silliness combined with insight and a little satire.

So Ray brought me to meet the rest of his crew at the time, one or two of them being members of Adversary to this day, the rest of them temporarily supporting the group before they later moved on to other things. One of the latter category was a guy I’m gonna call Trevor. Trevor was looked up to by the rest of the group. He had a style of art that evoked many comics of the early 90s, and had two concepts planned for Adversary.

Eager to set myself up as a representative of a local comic book company, I drew up a three-page preview of a story for a preview book that Adversary was assembling. My story was basically a comedic series involving a team of paranormal investigators. I stretched myself creatively in directions I never had before. Looking back I never realized it took me until that age to begin inking my drawings. Most of my artwork consisted of character designs without backgrounds. For this preview I had drawn some crude borders around my art that resembled a computer grid, and lined out neat lines to hand letter. (My handwriting has always been terrible.) Work completed, I showed it all to Ray, who was impressed by my initiative, and I had my three pages published in an early print of their preview book. Working off my momentum I was also uploading images to the company’s official Yahoo! Group.

However, I was unaware of something boiling slowly in the background. In the time it took me to complete my work, roughly a 5 week period, I attended regular meetings with the group at a Village Inn. We drank coffee, ate pie, and discussed future plans. Trevor’s involved elevating comic books as an art from. Younger, naïve and impetuous me didn’t understand that. I simply assumed comic books were supposed to be objects of fun and interesting writing in and of themselves. So we’d constantly debate about this during our meetings. One time, at the end of a meeting, I was on a miniature egotistical rampage. I had said the standing slogan for Adversary Comix, “your Imagination is not the Enemy” didn’t make sense, along with several meandering self-back-pats which I can’t even remember. As I left the meeting on that night, Trevor turned to me and said “See you in the funny papers.” I turned back for a moment, thinking what he said was odd, but I didn’t think anything of it.

You could probably guess what happened next, but I’ll tell you anyway. I went back on the Yahoo! Group to find all of my uploads had been deleted. I tried to upload them again. I deleted them again. I got ahold of Trevor and he told me he didn’t want me on the team anymore because I was being obnoxious. It didn’t matter how well I had held up my end as far as comic book writing, the fact that I was being a pain in the ass to another artist was enough for me to be given the brush-off. Ray did nothing, and to top it all off, my three pages were removed from the preview book. I know now it was because I was being immature, but I didn’t then, so I plotted all sorts of stories to write and publish so I could ‘get back’ at those skunks at Adversary Comix and retain some sense of integrity as far as being a comic writer.

Lots of people say revenge is a good motivator…It’s not really. Years went by. Ray and Trevor had a falling out over some issue I know nothing about and Ray started contacting me again. He wanted me to give him constructive criticisms of new comic preview books and side-projects he was working on. I gave him a few, but then I brought up the issue again by asking him “Why do you want the opinion of someone you kicked out a couple years ago?” He stopped asking. More years went by. Last year, as a side-effect of my combing the city in search of stories for my YouTube channel, I finally patched things up with Ray, and with the assistance of local artist Elijah Lawson I actually released a comic through Adversary Comix: a one-shot story featuring their character “El Nino Heroe” for Free Comic Book Day.

I’m glad that I could be accepted back into the comic-writing community in the city, but that’s not really the point I finally decided to share this. I decided to share this story because I wanted to let you know about the hideous mistake I made. It took me 8 YEARS to get over that incident, get over my own selfish pride and bring myself to a point where I could create again. That’s 8 whole years I lost ALL resolve to do something creatively, and to this day I’m still not so sure I can ever be fully successful as a comic book writer.

Every time I hear about a club quitting a club to form another club, or even a con quitting a con to become another con, and every time I hear that the motivation behind these actions is an attempt to ‘get revenge’ by ‘living well,’ I get upset because I remember everything that happened to me when I endeavored to do the exact same thing. I still keep the copy of the Adversary preview book that contained my three page preview as a reminder, and I constantly wonder what could have been if I had only done things differently.

Every writer looks to send a message to their readers. Everyone who practices written words hope that people see the messages underneath them. I, on the other hand, have always prided myself on my honesty and my integrity, even though my ego and my temper have always gotten me into trouble. If I could give one lesson to the world, though, it would be taken from this story.

And if that guy I called Trevor is reading this, I just want him to know that I’m sorry. You’ve taught me a very valuable lesson about life.

Marginal Gaming - Sometimes When We Touch

In his latest article for 8bitfix, Mike points out the fact that we now have three portable consoles on the market with touch-screen controls. How do the three systems stack up as far as handling those controls?

Take a look on the 8bitfix website.

FAL: Hunter of Shadows

Just like my last review, this one is a while coming. I know the author, Abraham Martinez, from way back in the early 2000s when we were both graphic design majors. Back in the day we would hang out, and we even developed a concept for a comic book, which never went through. Time went by and we didn't meet up again until around the first Frank N' Con, where he had this comic for sale. I fielded an interview with him which we also ended up not using. (Sorry Abe) And I told him I'd post a review of this comic for a column that I didn't end up starting until a few months ago. So, after much procratination and with several apologies to the author, here is my review of Fal: Hunter of Shadows.



FAL fallows the adventure of Jonah Lovecraft, a rather mood-stricken individual who, after witnessing the death of both his parents at the hands of demons, travels around slaying demonkind wherever they might appear on Earth. Aiding him is an enigmatic, and black-shadowed female figure that Jonah refers to as "the dark" who gives him supernatural abilities he can use to easily, and often rather bloodily, dispatch evil.



Now, after reading a paragraph like that you can pretty much see what one of the major weaknesses of this comic is: there's an awful lot of cliches. I had yet to also mention that the first demon attack involves a couple with their baby in the park, the Demons already know Fal by name and the powers Fal possesses involve him wielding a scythe and putting a Jack O' Lantern on his head. Yeah. Nothing brain-bending about that. The fact that the protagonist's last name is "Lovecraft" it's pretty transparent where the author was going when he developed this character. Unfortunately, he didn't make it there, as he was too busy rescuing a baby.

It's a shame since the high points of this book are so well done you really wish that the story hit a higher crescendo. Martinez's charm shines through in a place I know it would, in the artwork. While most of the details come from a vigorous Photoshopping it's very expertly done, and the book as a whole is unexpectedly very bright and colorful. What is most striking is how Fal's magic, and any accents that are used in and around him all involve autumnal tones. Martinez had discussed with me that more than a halloween theme, he had intended to make things fall more along the lines of autumn, and at last as far as the coloring he's succeeded. Also, even though the story is somewhat predictable the author manages to pace it in a way that shows a lot of understanding of the comic book format. Specifically, he shows us what's happening and keeps everything at a pace which makes every page engaging



Fal: Hunter of Shadows is a comic that has a lot of potential. Once more issues come out I'm sure that the story will only improve off the simplicity that is this first issue and show us the Lovecraftian thematic that its author is hoping to achieve. Keep an eye on this one, it could get big.

If you’d like your locally published or self-published book or comic reviewed on this segment, e-mail us at augmentedrealitymag@gmail.com. We will ask for a review copy, or if you cannot send us one, we will purchase a copy online at any nearby shop that has a copy available. We are all about supporting El Paso’s writing and art scene, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Marginal Gaming - The Incredible Mister Bronx

In my latest article for 8bitfix, I discuss my totally awesome new superhero, Mister Bronx, and the rather less than awesome MMORPG I created him in.

Check it out on the 8bitfix website.

Marginal Gaming - Waiting to EXPhale

In his latest column for 8bitfix.com, Mike Cervantes discusses what it's like to play DC Universe online. No wait...I mean, what it's like to DOWNLOAD DC Universe online. yeah that's right.

Check it out on 8bitfix.

Remember, Remember...

January 18^th.

Remember this day. Have it circled on your calendar for next year.

Keep it every year as a holiday, not one where you get presents or time off, but instead one where you reflect.

Remember this day, for this was the day of a revolution, our first bid for the freedom of the free web against one of its greatest opponents, the United States government.

Honestly, there’s no need to be too informative about it. You know precisely what I’m talking about. Today, January 18, 2012, a variety of major US websites, among them Google, Craigslist, and Wikipedia acted in protest against the Support Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). I don’t have to spend too much time describing what these bills too. You’ve read about them on bigger sites like Kotaku and The Escapist, and if you’ve visited Google or Wikipedia today, you’ve probably signed their petitions, used their search engine to look up your local congressman and seriously consider sending them a letter.

You’ve heard all about SOPA, how people in jest call it the “Sons of the Patriots” act, in reference to the similar deed Solid Snake fought against in Metal Gear Solid 2. You have heard it is supported by gaming and technology companies you admire like Sony, Nintendo, and even the Entertainment Software Association. You’ve heard that its attempts to install DNS blocking for domains has the potential to damage the navigation of the web. You’ve heard that recently it has been revised to be slightly less endangering and President Obama intends to veto the act, which has caused several outraged pundits to calm down slightly, but only slightly, as people are still concerned by the loss of internet freedoms apparent in the Protect IP act. You’ve heard THAT law gives power to corporations to deem anything a violation of copyright and take anyone from the most powerful competing organization to the most humble writer of fan-fiction to court for copyright violations.

We all know it’s important. We all know it’s something we should all be fighting against, and yet the only thing I can be said about it in this article I am writing is just how personal a law like this can be to one person. It doesn’t sound like it’s a lot, but even if it’s the least I can do in support, it’s still worth doing.

So here goes:

My family officially got internet access in 1996. At the time I was about 15 years old. More than the World Wide Web, my first explorations on the internet were on AOL keywords. I spent literally hours on the official Kids WB AOL portal, where I and a group of online friends wrote our first attempts at fan-fiction starring Earthworm Jim. The cartoon based on the video game had already been cancelled by the network, but on the internet it was still alive and kicking thanks to the efforts of our writing. So much so that the Kids WB keyword kept that message board open for about a year after the show was cancelled before finally taking it down. In the meantime I found other AOL and World Wide Web message boards dedicated to all the cartoons I enjoy, wrote several more fan-fictions and discovered…..Hey! I really enjoy writing! In fact I enjoy it so much I hope to write professionally someday!

Yeah it’s a hokey story about how I ultimately decided about what I want to do with my life, but the reason I bring it up is because I see SOPA and PIPA in terms of how it would limit me if I were still that age. I imagine myself at the age of 15, writing on a message board, when suddenly I’m summoned to court by…Interplay or Universal, suing me because an Earthworm Jim fan-fiction I wrote was a violation of copyright. In my day this happened, every now and then a fan-fiction writer would get a cease and desist letter from a company, telling them to take down some copyright material or face a lawsuit, and the individual would obligingly take the material off.

But SOPA permits companies to do SO much more…On that very first infringement, if they consider it enough of a copyright violation, they’d have me in court. No warning letter, no opportunity to quit, just…criminalization of myself over a work I wrote, not as a profiteer but just as a fan of the series.

If that were to happen to 15 year old Mike Cervantes, do you think he would have been interested in continuing a career in writing? What about the 15 year olds who are writing fan-fiction and drawing fan-art today? How will they feel once this act passes? A whole generation of creative people who, like me, were inspired by the fan-communities on the web would be forever lost.

Fast forward to just about a year ago and I’ve started attending UTEP. It’s just been a month since I’ve launched Augmented Reality, and I was taking a course in online journalism. It was a memorable course, not just because I was taking it while situating myself in the role of a blog manager, but also because I had a really great instructor.

My professor was a journalism veteran. He trekked across the world with his camera as a teenager and returned to the United States to become the managing editor of several English and Spanish language newspapers.

Naturally, you’d think that such a veteran of the printed page would put a lot of emphasis on the journalism techniques of old, but to my surprise, my professor spent just about every day of that class telling us how important the new digital media was. “If you’re a print media major, change your major,” he would often say “print is dead.” He would tote the modern technologies as giving the common man the ability to report news the instant it happened, citing an incident where an individual recorded an incident of Juarez gang violence using only the camera in his sell phone.

We would spend our mornings in each class exploring the front page of The New York Times and discussing current events. Often times our conversations would turn to the then-popular “Tea Party” movement. My professor was a professional journalist and never made any biases. But he did say once, that the one thing that concerned him the most about the Tea Party was that they don’t have respect for journalism. Couple that with what he had said about the new media and technology before, and I was able to form my own opinion about the information climate of today, which I will now share with you.

We live in a society of vast, widespread information. The web already contains more information than a person can ever possibly know in their lifetime and new stuff is being added to it every day. Anyone can update the web, including religious, political and social extremists, so you often have to be aware of where you’re getting your sources from, but besides that, anyone can share what they know about the world, essentially making anyone a journalist. Hell, I even do it as a hobby. Not since Gutenberg invented the printing press has communication been so revolutionized.

But with every technological evolution, there comes a series of technological revolutions. People who are comic book and video game fans know this because there were concerted, and at times successful, efforts to censor that material under the extreme belief that it was corrupting our youth, and interrupting our ways of life. We’ve grown to accept comics and are slowly growing to accept Video Games as media, but it just goes to show that whenever something progressive occurs in society, there will always be a specific group ready to oppose it.

There are people in our political climate who want to return to simpler times, adhere to traditional values, and hold us all to a standard of living that has served themselves well, but may not particularly fit with us all. Some of them are republicans, others Democrats and Independents, but they all certainly agree that the internet represents that last great frontier of free and open information an ancient conservative corporate society cannot fathom.

Think about it: Before the internet became public in the 90s, people had to rely on media run entirely on corporate sources. A small collection of very large companies own all the media in this country in every other form: television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, to the point where anything said in the media wasn’t in some small way biased.

The internet changed that. No matter what is said about the violence in Juarez on 20/20, it can’t compare to the footage shot by that one rogue guy with his cell phone camera. Corporations are concerned, not so much about torrents and piracy as they are about letting the public inform themselves in the same way as that one human being with a camera and an internet connection.

The corporations’ response to this is to lobby congressmen, who want a return to a corporate-sponsored media, (and if you think I’m incorrect about this, please google ‘Net Neutrality’) to give corporations a way to lobby the government and assert control of their intellectual property. Once they’re in the machine, they can then attempt to regulate and justify any sort of changes to the internet landscape as they can get away with and before you know it you’ll have a corporate-controlled internet.

So you see, being against SOPA and PIPA has more to do with copyright infringement, criminalizing fan-works, or even free speech. It’s about technological sovereignty. I want to be a part of that information-rich future my professor saw so clearly. But if these laws are passed, I won’t be able to go on and provide the articles, information and features on this site that I have freely and out of my own personal enjoyment. I’ll be too busy dodging my corporate Big Brothers.

Of course, that’s simply the way I see this outcome affecting me.

What you have to think of, is how it will affect you.

Oh and for all you El Paso readers: Here’s a link to a list of your elected officials.