Jeff the Killer isn't scary

Yeah. I said it.
About damn time some one did.

I honestly cannot quite figure out why the Creepypasta "Jeff the Killer" has gotten so popular. It's not scary.
The writing is simply mediocre (I know some of you would like to believe that "mediocre" is synonymous with "bad", but I'd like to remind you it is not). The story itself seems like a rejected Jhonen Vasquez comic/cartoon.
Oh, an insane killer with a deformed face?

Now, a bit of history; The following image is supposedly what inspired the story of "Jeff the Killer".

"Know Your Meme" claims the picture first appeared in a YouTube video in 2008, and I remember it popping up on /b/ many a time summer of that year (yeah, I went to /b/. Sue me). It was always the whole "If someone says your name, go to sleep", accompanied by this picture. Where the actual story came in, well, that's anyone's guess. If it's been floating around since 2008, unheard of and unseen until last year, that wouldn't be surprising. "Jeff the Killer"'s rise to fame has only been over shadowed by the meteoric rise in popularity of another towering Creepypasta figure.

Yes, that's right, the internet's favorite faceless child killer/Anonymous cosplayer. Go on your Facebook and tell me how many people on your friends list have made some post about the game "Slender" recently. Go ahead, I'll wait. If your friends are anything like my friends (and they probably are), you'll get several hits. Slenderman, or as people have been calling him since the early days, "Slendy" (I really hate that name), has reached such heights that Hollywood is making a movie that's a little too similar to the whole Slender mythos to not be a coincidence. It's called "The Tall Man". Just look it up.
Now, with Slenderman's popularity has come a tidal wave of shitty fanart and creepypastas, much like Jeff the Killer. The main difference between Jeff and Slender, however, is that Slenderman was scary, and still can be. I'll admit, the first few times I saw the "GO TO SLEEP" picture, I was unsettled, but now it looks like a vaguely humorous photoshop of Marilyn Manson. Slenderman, on the other hand... Well, I'm still unsure about taking night-walks through the neighborhood anymore.
Slenderman, for all intents and purposes, is a truly unsettling character with some fantastic stories weaved into the mythos that counter balance the crap.
Jeff the Killer is just... not.

Now, I think I've said my piece on Jeff the Killer already; I don't like it.
But I want to leave you with a theory as to why it got so popular.
It's no secret there are teenagers on the internet. Most of these teenagers are stupid, angsty, and wanna-be
"goff" and "scene". They like Hot Topic, Nightmare before Christmas, Jhonen Vasquez, as well as "Blood on the Dance Floor" and basically everything bad in this world. They hate their parents because they "DON'T UNDERSTAND ME". They hate their classmates because they're all "stupid preps".
Now which creepypasta character is a young teenager who killed his bullies and parents, and now lives a life of thoughtless and wanton murder?
Oh, right...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y983TDjoglQ

;_;

Post #6

Just a quick observation about Texas Tech;
In a statistic I'm pulling out of my ass, about 65% of everyone I've seen falls into the "Bro" demographic.
You know what I mean, those guys who wear RVCA tanks despite having absolutely no muscles to display, those guys who drive trucks because they're big (and dare I say, compensating for something), those guys who wear snapbacks for team they probably don't care about, etc. etc.
I'm pretty convinced they exist solely to provide a foil to everything good and rational in the world.
Well, as I walk around campus, surrounded by bros and their hoes, chattering endlessly in faux-country accents (they're trying to fit in to the "country" vibe that Lubbock is supposed to have, but is sorely lacking... I think), about how smashed they're going to get and how they're going to smoke enough ganja to buy out a whole Colorado repository, I can only think of one thing - How did these people get into college?

Tech doesn't have the highest academic standards, despite being a Tier 1 school. I didn't expect the UT crowd. I didn't even expect the A&M crowd. But this... I can see how one out of every three freshman doesn't make it past the first semester.
That doesn't exclude the upper-classman bros. Not only how did they get into college, how did they stay?
Going back to A&M and UT as well, my consituents attending those schools tell me it's just as bad there. Hell, I even hear TCU is just as bad.

How did this happen? How did it come to this?
I'm quick to point my finger at my old nemesis, School Athletics, but in my heart of hearts, I know this is one issue I can't blame on our societies obsession with sports. Well, let's just say that's a possibility that's yet to be seen.

Whatever the case, I hate them already. And I hate tank tops, which is a shame, since I wouldn't hate them if these tits hadn't ruined them.

I'll probably have more trivial things to bitch about later (like the fact the internet in the dorms are fine, but refuse to load YouTube videos for some reason, or the douchebag "DJ" who I'm pretty confident no one likes who plays only shitty dubstep and complains about literally every other genre of music), but right now, it's a Sunday afternoon and I'm still feeling like Gilbert O'Sullivan. I've been passing the time by aimlessly wandering around campus and listening to Gangnam Style for the sixtieth time today.

When will this be the socially acceptable mode

of locomotion that it should be?

Also, I really want Yoo Jae-Sook's
suit. I would wear that pretty much everywhere.

I'm deeply upset that Tech doesn't offer Korean courses, but I'll be damned if that keeps me from staying a semester over there.

Alone Again (Naturally)

Well boy howdy, I got a whole THREE page views on ONE ARTICLE!
Maybe I should rag on Homestuck more, and I'll bump it up to SIX! Now that would be cool.

BUT, confession time.
As much I would like to keep a modicum of anonymity, I suppose I can't when blithering about my personal life. So, are you ready for a shock?
I hope you're sitting down...
I'm an incoming college freshman.
I know, I know, it must be shocking to find out that I, in all of that childish arrogance I try so hard to keep out (and fail so poorly at) is only a wee eighteen. And where am I going?

GET 'CHER GUNS UP, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!!

Okay, okay, I'm not that into it. Hell, I didn't even consider Tech until May, when I happened to go to Lubbock for a school event and found out that:
A) The school itself was not a decrepit hole in the ground, and was actually not bad
and
B) Lubbock itself, while leaving much to be desired, isn't wholly bad.
I mean, it certainly ain't El Paso.

Behold, the single-most misleading image
on the internet.

Sorry, I'm not a big fan of El Paso. I didn't have the best time there when I went.
Anyways, I was supposed to move in on Sunday, but I, out of the goodness of my heart, stayed to work Tax-Free Weekend at my retail job. Well, I need the money, and I quite liked my workplace and am a bit sad to go. I made a lot of good friends there, had some fun, and, overall, I felt like it was a year well spent.
Because of that, I'm moving in Wednesday.
The problem? All of my friends already moved on to their colleges, with the lone exception of that one guy going to Community College (and he's busy with work), and everyone I know going to Tech already left Sunday.
So until... well, another twenty four hours about, I'm all alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ELnhjGw4Zs

If only YouTube would actually embed.
But then you wouldn't get this great picture
of Gilbert O'Sullivan!

The Return of the Sperglord

So I was in San Antonio for San Japan: Mach 5 for the past three days.
I don't know what else to say other than I had a very, very good time. I've been to A-Kon twice, but never really done anything but wander around the dealer room and look at other things here and there. Having actually done stuff? And actually talk to people?
Yeah, I'd definitely go again.
I mean, I met Ellen McClain (voice of GLaDOS) and her husband John Patrick Lowrie (the voice of the Sniper in TF2 AND an award winning author, he was very vehement people know him as something outside of TF2. I don't blame him, really), LittleKuriboh of Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged fame, participated in an anime trivia contest, won an Iron Cosplay contest, danced like a maniac, went to both raves, ate nothing but pizza and orange chicken, had a good time with old friends and met some new ones...
Still, the return to reality is overwhelmingly depressing. Hell, Sunday itself was depressing; hardly anything was going on, and everyone was leaving. Hotel parking lots dried up, the streets were once again filled with normal people... It's saddening.
That combined with the fact that my constant, three plus week long vacation stint is finally coming to a close.
I gave it a good run.
Summer 2012 is one for the record books.
Now in only one more week, the reality I've returned to changes all over again... I'll get to that soon enough.
Final Thoughts: San Japan was cool, I've already registered for next year.

Oh, and one more thing...
To all you Homestuck(ers?) I may have offended and Homestucker fans in general:
I was wrong. I apologize.
I still think Homestuck's fandom is a blight and that Homestuck cosplay sucks (I had three days worth of proof), BUT I did find a cosplay that takes the minimal amount of effort period.

Oh yes. I used to give Finn cosplay the slip, if only because you have to go out of your way to make or buy the hat. But now that they're being sold on ThinkGeek for sixteen dollars a pop? Well, I can't tell you how many Finn's I saw who couldn't even bother to get a green backpack or even wear shorts. I want to say Cartoon Network has now started mass producing them and selling them in stores via Vietnamese sweatshops because I think I saw a giant "CN" stamped to the back of one... Unfortunately, my research so far (read: a minute on google) has come up dry... for now.
Though, perhaps the blame is being put on the wrong person. I mean, the "Finn" at hand is still at fault for being "Finn", but I saw plenty of Princess Bubblegums and Marcelines (may I add, in varying levels of quality) with them. If there were less Princesses and Vampires, would there be so many Finns? I wonder...
So yeah, sorry Homestuck guys. I don't like you any more, but at least I know you've put a modicum of thought into your costume outside buying a single hat for sixteen dollars and a two dollar light blue t-shirt, assuming you didn't have one to begin with.

If you aren't this guy, don't bother dressing as Finn.
You can't follow this up unless you have a really good Jake with you.

In which I say my piece about the Homestuck fandom

In preparation for an upcoming trip with some friends to a convention in San Antonio, one of my friends brought up what I dreaded to hear, but knew was inevitable.
Cosplayers. Not any cosplayers, mind you - Homestuck Cosplayers.
I've had a... history, with Homestuck Cosplayers before.
See, if you're going to cosplay, you damn well better do it good. There's an argument to be made that good cosplay is few and far between, but I can often give credit to a bad cosplayer if they at least tried.
But then we have Homestuck.
I have never seen a good Homestuck cosplay with my own eyes. I've seen a handful on the internet thanks to a "friend" who was trying to prove a point that "OMG THERE ARE GOOD HOMESTUCK COSPLAYERS", but with my own two eyes, in the flesh? No. Never. It's mostly kids with lightly applied gray facepaint and orange tubes tied to their head, or, in one hilarious example, an older man (attempting) to cosplay as the one troll with the sunglasses who looked strikingly like Al Jolson in blackface.
But that's just the trolls. The kids are even worse. Literally, all you need to do is buy one of the shirts from Andrew Hussie's site, maybe buy a wig if you're hair is a different color than whatever character you're doing  (in the case of one intrepid twelve year old, just shear your hair off until you've got the perfect John Eggbert... mullet. It wasn't pleasant), and bam! You're done. Of course, there's other accessories, but they're cheap and take all the effort of going to a CVS to attain. The only exception is Dave in the suit and whatever, and I'll concede that all two of the pictures I've seen of someone pulling that off did it extremely well.

It's worth noting that good kid cosplay is out there, but it's few

and far between. Much like any good cosplay, really.

Still, that doesn't change the fact I saw a good 54 Dave Striders - the un-tux ones, mind you - at A-Kon this year in one day alone. Yeah, I counted. Most of them don't look like the above picture. Most of them look like... We'll, this.

T-Shirt: Twenty-Five Dollars
Haircut: Mom did it for free
Glasses: Got them out of Dad's closet
Being used on a blog as an example? Priceless.

Oh, and this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyFXNMVbO5Q
If this doesn't make you wretch, I don't know what will.
I could probably write a novel about everything wrong with that video, but I won't insult your intelligence and assume you need to be told all that's wrong in this video.

It doesn't stop with the cosplay, though, oh no. It goes much deeper than that.
Back in 08-09, when I was a terribly obnoxious high-school weeaboo (that's whole set of stories for another day), I was a huge DeviantArt hound. I watched my share of talentless garbage, yes, but I think people often forget that there are a lot of people with outstanding talent on DeviantArt, even if all they do is fan-art.
As of late, I went back to look at their pages, just out of curiosity.
And, I'll be damned, almost every single person I remember having some modicum of talent has completely stopped drawing fanart/original works of anything except -
A) My Little Pony
B) Homestuck
I can count the exceptions on one hand. I mean wow. It is so disheartening to see people with such potential throw it away so they can make an "Ask - inset pony here-" tumblr page. I mean, really? You have a great, relatively original comic going on, but you choose to drop that completely so you can make an "Ask a Pony" tumblr? For shame, my friend, for shame... No, I'm not naming names.
But, that's just a guy thing. See, literally every male that I used to follow now does Pony art.
Every girl I used to follow does Homestuck art.
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM... I WONDER...
To sum it up nicely, many wonderful artist have succumbed to these cancerous fandoms and have tragically abandoned any sort of original aspirations and have completely converted to these cults. I can only hope one day they see the error of their ways.

I'll admit, the over-saturation of Homestuck is more of a personal gripe than an objective critique of the fandom. Did I mention that? That this is me complaining about the fandom? You could be forgiven for thinking this is some stream of concious rant, which it kind of is, but no. I sat down to talk about why I hate the Homestuck fandom, and I just barely brushed the biggest complaint I have in the first paragraph with that video.
I know there are obnoxious fans in any fandom; it's unavoidable. But God DAMN do Homestuck fans go out of their way to make it look like they're the worst. And, I'm not talking about everyone who likes Homestuck. I know there are plenty of level-headed fans out there who like Homestuck and abhor the fandom, as demonstrated in those comments in the video, but these guys make Sonic fans look good... Almost. If I were to list all the incidents at both this year's A-Kon and last year's that involved Homestuck drama/obnoxious screeching/acting like morons in general, we'd be here all day. I mean, authors write about what they know, and literally all I know about the Homestuck fandom is terrible.
If you like Homestuck and are caught in the middle of this absolute mire of a fandom, I am truly sorry. Keep your chin up - I'm sure there's another Hetalia barreling around the corner that will whisk all the obnoxious bandwagon hoppers to another fandom and leave you battered, bruised, covered in regurgitated Dr. Pepper, but finally safe.

Oh, and did I mention that I don't actually hate Homestuck? Because I don't. I think Andrew Hussie, while he has extended Homestuck out so far that I don't know what the Hell is going on and I haven't kept up with it in more than a year, is a talented story teller and extremely clever. Homestuck certainly has it's good parts, and I can see why a good deal of people really enjoy it. HOWEVER, on this final note, I want to quote the ever-eloquent DeviantArt user StapledSlut, who I only vaguely knew existed before I googled "Homestuck Fandom Sucks" in a bout of blind rage after my friend linked me that video last night.
- "It seems like everyone either, 1) Likes the fandom (art) of homestuck, but doesn't actually like homestuck itself, OR 2) Likes homestuck but can't stand the fandom surrounding it."

Yeah, that about sums it up perfectly. And I feel really, really bad for those number twos out there,
While I don't exactly agree with the rest of the post, you can read it here for further reference:
http://stapledslut.deviantart.com/journal/Homestuck-More-like-homeSUCK-An-elaboration-266473267?moodonly=158

Now you maybe wondering about My Little Pony... Odds are you don't care, just like you still probably don't care about my feelings on Homestuck despite reading this whole thing, but if you do...
One day. One day I'll write about it. I'm waiting until the time is right to pick that apple... probably when some brony snaps and kills someone. I'm waiting...

I love Delaware

I've just returned from an exhaustive two week trek between Fort Worth and Philadelphia, and while I could have perfectly posted an update from my uncle's basement (I won't lie, I think I'm in love with basements. It's a real shame you can't get one built in Texas), I didn't really feel like it.
For the first time in a long time, I signed out of Facebook, email, everything, and just let myself go.
I was taking a gamble, of course, seeing as if anyone really needed me, they'd have been boned, but it was very nice to just get away.
It's not like there wasn't anything to talk about; the whole Chik-Fil-A fiasco gave me and the family plenty of late night, fire place, Arnold Palmer/Alcohol fueled discussions. While I'd love to say my piece on the whole ordeal, I don't think I will unless it keeps going. And going. And going. And let's be honest, it probably will.
But right now, I'm happy. The last thing I want is to dive into the complex world of LGBTQLMNOP issues, when I could just talk about how much I enjoyed Cleveland. I mean, seriously, a high of 80 degrees?
In July? 
Yeah, I liked that. Sadly, when I crossed over the state line from Arkansas to Texas last night, it was about 92 degrees. At midnight. I'm missing it already.
So yeah, here's a list of where I went, and a number rating of how much I liked it.

Cleveland - 8/10, would visit again.
Meadville, PA - 5/10, needs some work.
Allentown, PA - 2/10, would not visit again without a bullet proof vest.
Bethlehem, PA - 7/10, was impressed.
Philadelphia - 8/10, would like to see more. Couldn't make it to West Philly to check out the birthplace of the God-King Will Smith, sadly. Also had some Japanese tourists compliment the anime shirt I was wearing at Independence Hall. That made my trip.
Wilmington, DE - 10/10 will visit again. Probably going to live there, best place in the country, already changed licence plates.

I also stayed a day in D.C. on the way back, but I love that area and saying that I wouldn't move to Alexandria in a heart-beat would be a lie.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to start drilling underneath my house and begin construction of my own basement.