Friday, May 20, 2016

Facebook issues: Updated

As of today, I still don't know why I was booted from FB.  Again, I had no warning, no CLUE as to why I was kicked out.  Sure I had the occasional debates with others, but none of them indicated to me that they were that outraged by my comments. I certainly can think of no one among my FB friends who seemed so incensed and offended over something I said that they'd report me to FB. 

On the contrary, just like in my real life, I had many very passionate leftists among my FB friends who were as dedicated to their views as I am to my conservative views.  And I didn't hide the fact that I am conservative.  I never did before I came on FB, and for the entire eight year run, I never hid my views.  Everyone who friended me knew how I felt on the issues, and yet they were still my FB friends.  I enjoyed their company, even if they had contrary views to mine, and as far as I could tell, they enjoyed my company.

I did not see any sort of indication of anyone being that upset with me, because I think that they would have told me.  I've had rather spirited discussions before, but we always still got along afterwards.  I try to make it a point of being an "approachable" conservative, and I think most people felt that way about me.  So after saying all this, I find it hard to believe that anyone would report me.  I'm not denying the possibility, but again, I can't think of anyone among my FB friends who would do that.  One of my FB friends is as leftist as you can get, and yet we're downright chummy when we're not engaging in virtual fisticuffs. 

I thought about this a LOT, and about the only reason I can think of as to why FB would boot me is because my email is "bustyherochick" and my blog is "Busty Superhero Chick"; that is, some part-time unpaid intern at FB saw my account name, assumed that "busty" meant that I was some porn spammer, and gave me the axe, because boobs.  Boobs always cause problems, and I wouldn't doubt it if this was why I was booted.  Here's why I think this is a logical reason why I got booted: For FB, it probably IS that easy to spot the porn spammers, by using keywords like "busty" to find accounts that are most likely porn hustlers.  Porn people have been trying to disguise what they do by getting creative, like using b00b$, but they still have to give some clue as to what they're about, so they can't get too creative, or their potential customers won't be able to find them. 

The thing is, I've been "busty" for nearly 10 years, and only now they find me?  I guess I was hiding in plain sight all this time because I used the actual word instead of strange and rare but still readable characters like ßŨŞŦŸ!  So I am still out of the loop.  I just hope you're all behaving out there!

Meanwhile, I still have my duties as the Director of Social Media Marketing to take care of.  Plans that were in the making before the Big Boot are still in effect, although now without me there, we'll have to get creative as to how to promote the book once it comes out.  Oh!  And that's another thing!  The first issue has finally made progress on getting those final, six, infuriating pages completed, so we're finally moving along, friends!  WHOOHOO!!!  :-D

Also, the boss has been working diligently on getting artists lined up and hired to take care of TMA2 and TMA3, so that, once the first book comes out, the wait for the following issues hopefully won't be nearly as long. We are still at the mercy of the artists' schedules, but with more time to do their work, hopefully this will reduce the wait time like we had with TMA1.   We are also working on marketing strategies like t-shirts, variant covers, replica earrings, and other merchy products.  All about the merch, of course!  ;-)  And last, we're making decisions on what sort of fundraiser to use.  Kickstarter?  We don't have the merch yet to offer as incentives, so that might not be likely.  GoFundMe?  Something else?  The boss is going to ask for input from others on what we could do for this first go-round until he can get us some decent merch to pitch for KS.

While all that is going on, the time that I normally spent being on FB has instead been spent on catching up on books, movies, logging onto World of Warcraft more than usual (can never be on WoW TOO much!  LOL), and staying up to date on the 2016 election and other recent events.  I'm still conservative, by the way, so that hasn't changed.  >.<

I'm also going to see a movie that I've been strongly encouraged to see, which is Captain America: Civil War.  The other movie that I will most definitely go see, and perhaps see several times - IN THE THEATER! - is the OMGWarcraft movie!  Okay, it's actually Warcraft, but those of you who've followed me all this time know how much I love me some WoW!

Also, while I may not be on FB, I still have my blog.  This is where it all started, actually, and I suppose it's only fitting that I come back here and show it the kind of love that I had not been giving it in recent years.  I love blogging, but FB needed my attention more, and more often, if I was to keep up with the contacts that I had made over the years.  And you know - that's what kills me the most - all those people I connected with and got to know over the years, all those artists whom I helped connect with the boss and get pin-ups from, all those creators who helped us to finally put together a book, and creators who joined up and formed Creators United - ALL GONE in an instant!  That really, really kills me so much that it actually hurts, especially in the way I was unceremoniously dumped from FB.

But I can't change things, so here I am.  So be it.  I won't be swayed from my conservative views, even if I am cut out entirely from the social media.  I'd rather be cut out from the social media than surrender ONE viewpoint; that's how much I believe in my views.  And again, while FB was the most amount of contact that I had with others, it was still only ONE contact.  There's still other means of reaching out to others, and now I have my excuse to explore those alternatives.  Give me some time, I should be popping up somewhere else soon, but do keep up with my blog to see what I'm up to.  ;-)

In closing, I leave this quote by Captain America, which he said during the comic version of Civil War.  I love it, because it captures WHY I stick by my beliefs.  Thank you, friends.  I miss you, and I love you.  Take care.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

My Facebook Account

Hello, everyone!

This morning, I logged onto my FB account to wish my mother a Happy Mother's Day.  Later in the morning I was going to mention the second anniversary of my having been named my boss' Director of Social Media Marketing, but I couldn't log onto my account.

I got a message that my account was suspended.  Understand friends, that this came without warning.  I heard NOTHING of any problems from FB regarding my account, nor was I given any reports from anyone upset about something I posted - NOTHING!  This was just plain out of the blue. 

I've been trying to contact FB over what happened, and whether we can resolve whatever the problem is, but I can't get ahold of them.  I'll keep working on the problem, but in the meantime, I will be out of the loop and out of touch with my FB friends.  WAAAAAAHH!!!!  :'-(

I mean, this is EIGHT years out of my online life we are talking here!  Eight years of contacts made and formed with artists and other creative types from all over the world that I've gotten to know and love!  And then I'm cut off, and for what?!?  I wish I'd have some warning or some way to explain my side of things, instead of this kill from out of nowhere!!

I COULD just make another account, but I'd like to know why I was cut off in the first place.  And on top of that, I'd like my old account back if possible, because like I said, I made many connections over the years that I'd rather not lose just like that.  That's lots of friendships made, lots of interesting people that  I no longer have contact with, FB groups that I am now cut off from, so that's a lot of rebuilding should I have to make a new account.

So bear with me friends, as I try to figure this out.  In the meantime, I can be contacted by email: bustyherochick@yahoo.com

As I try to work through this, the boss will keep you posted on any updates or goings-on. 

Thanks friends, and I hope to see you all again REAL soon!

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens



Alright, before I get into my spoilery review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TFA), let me say here and now before I get any grief from those who haven’t seen SW: TFAAHEAD BE SPOILERS!!!

***SPOILERZZ!!!*** 

That is, what I’m about to say below has CONTENT FROM THE MOVIE THAT WILL SPOIL IT for you if you haven’t seen it!  GOT IT? GOOD!!


Okay, before I continue, let me give my preference in regards to the whole Star Wars/Star Trek debate: I prefer Star Trek.  However, before any of you SW fanz start losing your shit, let me quickly add that honestly, that’s not saying much, as I do not have a great deal of passion for either franchise.  When it comes to ST or SW, I much love me some World of WarcraftWoW comes way, way before any Jedi or Vulcan.  Let’s say that on a scale of 1 to 10, and WoW (and comics, my other huge pop culture passion) is 10, then SW comes in at 4, while ST at 5.  Yeah.  So.  No big difference.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons why I was in no rush to go see TFA when it first came out in the theaters.  And I didn’t see it until the boss bought me the BluRay of it for my birthday.  Only THEN did I see it.  As longtime readers of my blog know, I’m a cheapskate – that is, I don’t hand out my money willy-nilly just because some movie is hyped up.  For most movies, I have to be DRAGGED to a movie with someone else paying my way before I’ll go.  And now that I’ve seen TFA, I see that I would have been disappointed had I spent money to see it in the theaters. 

It’s not that it was a bad movie, it’s just that it really was (in my opinion, of course) a rehash reboot of the very first (from 1977, that is) Star Wars.  In other words, TFA was meant to reboot the franchise for future SW films.  Did it do that – reboot the franchise?  Yes, it did, but by being basically formulaic in that there was even a new death star to blow up by striking just the right spot in an otherwise impenetrable fortress.  Kinda curious how those engineers always leave in that one little flaw that some hotshot pilot can fire into to blow the whole thing to smithereens.  That’s probably the main thing that bothered me about TFA – that it was basically another Star Wars: A New Hope

Don’t get me wrong – it was fun and exciting and visually entertaining, but there was the old Han, Leia, Chewie, C-3P0, R2-D2, and the new Luke, Han, R2-D2 and even Darth Vader in his grandson, Kylo Ren.  And of course, there was the mysterious new “emperor” behind the corruption of the new Vader, a new Sith Lord.  There was even a desert planet where the film started in and the film finished with the ginormous explosion.  So in short, I’ve seen this before.  

Thing is, I get why Disney went with the familiarity route.  They just spent Kim Kardashian-sized buttloads of money to acquire the franchise from that chubby nerdy slob whose name I can't recall right now, so dammit, the people want Star Wars, they're gonna get friggin' Star Wars!  And Disney knows that people are willing to spend buttloads of money to go see it, so it's a guaranteed audience so long as they stay with the safe and familiar - which is why we have TFA

George Lucas.  Yeah, that's the chubby nerdy slob guy. 

So what happens after this?  Will Disney venture into new, unexplored territory with the SW franchise?  Don't count on it, because again, it's a known and beloved franchise, so they can't risk straying from the safe and familiar without risking scathing hatred from the loyal SW fandom.  Let's face it, SW is going to be Disney's little profit-producer from here on in, and they're not about to upset that apple cart - not after what they spent to get it. 

 I know that this isn't what loyal SW fans wanted to hear from me, but I have to be honest in that TFA stayed with the safe and familiar by giving us a modern retelling of A New Hope.  I honestly hope that I'm wrong, and that Disney does indeed takes the franchise into a bold new direction, but the shameless capitalist in me knows how capitalists and capitalism work, and I can't see them making any serious changes and risking SW not being the planned profit generator.  On the one hand, Disney's purchase of the SW franchise saved it, because we will finally have films that take place after The Empire Strikes Back, but at the same time, the franchise was doomed by Disney's purchase of it, because of what I just described above. 

So on a scale of 1 to 10 in which 1 is a bomb and 10 is THE bomb, I give SW: TFA a 7.5.  It was marvelously put together, but sadly very predictable.  Let's hope Disney surprises me with their future films.