I'm sure a lot of you have already discovered this, but in case you haven't, you should check out the Darth Vader Blog: http://darthside.blogspot.com (The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster) The thing is an absolute riot. It's a half comedy half philosophy journal covering Star Wars A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from the perspective of Darth Vader. I highly recommend it to everyone, regardless of whether or not you like Star Wars, this is just funny and excelle...

This is a spin-off from Dharma's article on what your blog means to you. The discussion in the comments strayed more into why people blog at JU, so instead of continuing the digression, I decided to write up why I'm here in a separate article. I've experimented with online journals of one variety or another for probably close on 7 or 8 years now. I've done my own on my personal site, I even did LiveJournal for a while but they all were kinda unfulfilling. I wrote, but no one read any ...

Wow, I mean... WOW... We've reached a level of hatred and animosity that I think surpasses even what we had during the elections last fall. It seems like the past few days have been completely dominated by spite and venom filled posts where everyone is attacking everyone else. From my own article on JU Libs, to the rash of responses to Myrrs Sad Conservatives article, the anger and animosity is just building and building. It seems like little else is being discussed here at the moment,...

We've all seen it, someone posts a blog on some topic that really gets people going. It either rouses some passionate response, or some insult, or sometimes it's simple disagreement. This is actually what makes JU so much fun at times, getting feedback (both positive and negative) on what you write. Why then, are there people who post about something, and then get mad over/delete any comments with which they don't agree? You post something to a publicly accessable site, you leave commen...

This is an edited/photoshopped strip I found on a friend's LiveJournal. It's an incredibly sad image for someone like me who grew up with Calvin & Hobbes. Calvin, despite his disposition (which my parents say matched mine pretty well), was the greatest example of the unlimited potential of a child. He visited far off worlds, different places in time... he had the best stuffed animal/friend in the whole wide world. He was six and he was having a good time. Sure he was a handful to hi...

First off, yes, I know this article falls in the category of "noise" Now, this is a separate complaint from the issues we used to have with people flooding with advertising spam. This is an issue of there just being a ton of useless crap being posted. The main reason I like this site so much is because of the general high-quality of the articles and comments. Though I disagree with many of the opinions of people like DrGuy, Moderateman, drmiller or heck, even Brad himself, I can stil...

We did a little bit of clean-up work on a few of the databases connected to JoeUser today.  Here at the office, it feels like the site has been snappier in pulling up articles. How does the site speed "feel" to everyone else now?  Were you even noticing any slowness the past few weeks?

The new forums went up the other week, and the reaction has been decidedly mixed, with some very vocal opponents to the new format. The goal with the forum upgrade was to have a consistent forum system across all the Stardock sites that was: 1. Faster (the old system was very slow under load) 2. More Stable (Fewer server application errors are a good thing!) 3. More closely resembled the "standard" sort of forum layout you see elsewhere on the 'net, making it easier for new people to ge...

The forum updates that have been going on across the rest of the Stardock websites have finally made their way to JoeUser.  There are a whole slew of changes that hopefully I'll get to describing and documenting later for everyone, but one of the most immediate differences people have already noticed are the Forum Avatars; the little pictures that appear next to people's names on forum posts. We've had avatars for a while, as anyone who had one before would have it show on any comment they ...

Is the list on the right actually updating?

The day approaches... soon now I will load up all my worldly goods into a truck, and then set out for the mysterious land of... Michigan! But before that day arrives, a great number of things must be done… oh a great number indeed! If you've never had the pleasure of moving across state lines, by yourself, then you are missing out on a unique exercise in misery and frustration that can only be somewhat approximated in written description. However, I shall do my best to communicate to yo...

Welcome back LEGO Fans! After a 6 month haitus, I'm back with my LEGO Star Destroyer Photo Blog. When last you read about my progress in October, I had completed the base frame, stand, and one quarter of the hull plating. Well, after months and months of delay I sat down again with all the bags of plastic pieces strewn about me and set to work. I only intended to get maybe the rest of the hull plating done and then save the rest for another weekend, but well... that didn't exactly work. ...

WARNING: Self-congratulatory fluff type of article follows. If you don't like anniversary/milestone posts, please go elsewhere! Two years ago today, I posted my first article here on JU. It was just days after I had graduated from college and was setting out on the grand adventure called life. In the article I set myself 5 goals for the following year. Get a job, become financially indepenent, become more social, meet a nice girl, and start to figure out what I want to be doing in lif...

This is a test post... does JU work yet?

Star Destroyer - Day 3 October 22, 2005 Day 3 Today was a marathon session. I sat down around 1pm and pulled out all the little lego bags, and the frame section I built on Day 2. I kept at it until 7:30pm. While my back and knees aren't all that happy with having sat cross-legged on the floor for 6.5hrs, I got a lot done on the set. I started with a non-descript triangle and ended up with something that is definitely starting to resemble an Imperial Star Destroyer! Today's ac...