I'm just your boring average ex-account who wasted a lot of his youth playing fantasy RPGs (Role-Playing Games), specifically Dungeons & Dragons and Stormbringer/Elric, originally for outside Philadelphia PA who turned to computer graphics as an artistic outlet. I spent 30 years from the mid 80's to late 2012 living in Palm Beach County FL (North Palm Beach to be specific), working for not-for-profits in the social service and health care arena, but suffered a health crisis due to undiagnosed diabetes which had me in the hospital for 5 months, cost me part of my left foot, and has taken several years to recover from. I now live in Milford DE to be near family. My diabetes has left me with advanced renal disease, forced me to start dialysis, which I can fortunately do at home, but has me locked up for an hour four times a day (which allows me plenty of time to keep up on my gallery comments), but I still have a fair amount of independence and my health issues aren't nearly as bad or inconvenient as many others are. Most of my work is inspired by those fantasy RPG campaigns I wasted a lot of my youth on. I tend to post series of images with rather lengthy narratives that add up to short stories, or chapters in on-going tales. Thank you for your interest and attention!
Update:
Due to a very seriously broken ankle and shin I've been stuck in a wheelchair for over a year with an external fixator on my right leg, but I'm still managing to get by on my own.
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Comments (26)
moebiustraveller
Looks very interesting, Zaq. Sorry to hear of your computer woes... maybe a monsta named "Carbonite" to be slain in your series? :)
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comment!
If I could think of a vile enough data consuming pile of sludge, I'd be tempted!
K_T_Ong
Sorry to hear about all the work you lost. If it's any consolation, know that it happened to me before.
Don't know about Carbonite but nowadays I always store my most valued files in either SD memory cards or a thumb drive, and I always store them in more than one place. Just a small suggestion. :)
zaqxsw
Thanks again for you kind comments!
I did have a backup on my external hard drive, but unfortunately the program I used would not recognize the file types for Poser data and content... I'm now using one which creates a full mirror image of my hard drive.
goldie
Thanks for the update...Sorry to hear about your trouble with Carbonite...I know how awful it feels to lose files...Now, I backup all my important files on external HDs. On my 4th drive. I keep nothing I would hate to lose on my working computer, and I certainly wouldn't pay someone to keep my important files because I know how incompetent they can be. Look forward to your return :)
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
My only concern with not using an offsite backup service is the frequent power surges we get here... I have my PC and external hard drive on a series of three surge protector but I still worry about getting both zapped.
Kordouane
Magnificent work
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
mtdana
Sorry you could not recover everything - it sound like that problem won't be repeated!!! Looking forward to the coming series!!!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
I try not to make the same mistake twice... but there are always new and wonderful mistakes to make!
Palaemon
Sorry for what happened to you! Keep courage!
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
eekdog
Lost many things through the years, countless stuff. Don't use carbonite myself.
Will be waiting for your posts.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
Richardphotos
sorry to hear of your problem. hopefully things will work out for you. I swear by dvd's for backups
zaqxsw
Thanks again for your kind comments!
Unfortunately I was stupid when I bought this computer and didn't get a read/write DVD drive.
RedPhantom
Sorry to hear about your trouble. I can relate. I once had to reinstall windows. It wanted to reformat my hard drive. I accidentally pointed it to my document drive that had all my poser stuff on it and wiped that instead. I didn't have it completely backed up. I was able to get some of it restored. Most content I found again.
Look forward to your posts again. Thanks for the update.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for your kind comments!
I was able to restore most of my content from here and DAZ, but unfortunately some of the old stuff I had from RDNA is gone forever... What really annoyed me is loosing my old character files because of Carbonite!
Crudelitas
I'm so sorry they messed you so hard. Yes, such a data service should you really destroy. Fortunately, I save all my data on two external hard drives, which has often saved my ass.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
I hope I never have to depend on it, but I've already signed up with "IDrive" which was recommended as the best offsite backup by PC Magazine... I'll have everything mirrored on my external hard drive... but I'm worry about having it and my PC fried by power spikes which we have a lot here.
Echidnaean
Can't wait to see what follows that title. :)
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comment!
RodS
Thanks for the update - it can be a gut-wrenching experience losing irreplaceable files like that. Happened to me a couple times - now I'm utterly anal about backing up stuff, especially massive runtimes that would take months of work to restore or reinstall.
I'm guessing Carbonite is a cloud-based backup service - that probably charges a substantial fee for their "service'... Sounds like they need someone to rip them a new a##hole. They sure didn't deliver for you.
Anyway, I hope the rest of the computer recovery goes smoothly!
zaqxsw
Thanks for all your kind comments!
I've recovered about as much as I'm going to be able to... So I'm trying to find my footing again and get back on track with the story... Although I'm doing some "recasting" since I have to recreate some parts anyway... The crash gave me time to reconsider some elements.
anitalee
Thanks for keeping us updated
zaqxsw
Thanks for you interest!
starship64
Carbonite sounds awful! I'm looking forward to seeing whatever you come up with next.
zaqxsw
Thanks for all your kind comments!
I sincerely hope the rest of the series doesn't disappoint!
ZanderXL
Man that sucks!! Friggin Corbomite Manoeuvre!
I'll use the lul to go back and re-read!
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comment!
I appreciate your interest... I hope the continuation doesn't disappoint!
bucyjoe
just chill and do some pictures for here
zaqxsw
Thanks for your kind comment!
romangirl
A few months ago, one of my external files died. I lost many old files. I now have two external drives. But I prefer to manually copy files to these drives. To me, it's safer than assuming files are being copied. No sure way with computers.
zaqxsw
Thanks... It seems to be damned if you do and damned if you don't... The solid state drive is supposed to be a lot more dependable and now I've got a mirror copy going to my external drive daily and a backup going to IDrive daily... I may sound paranoid but I've been burned twice now.
tuxedomask
Carbonite sounds terrible.
zaqxsw
It is... But I've already "fired" them and found a new service, IDrive, who was recommended by PC Magazine... Unfortunately a lot of my old work is gone, but I was able to recover everything from this series. Assuming no more "recasting" on my part, I have all the images done and about four narratives but I have ten more to go... I originally planned to do about a dozen images in this "book" but it's twice that now!
bakapo
I'm sorry for all your computer troubles. (I stopped using Daz3d because of computer crashes. back-ups never worked right. I keep saying I'll retry the program but I'm too stressed from life that I just don't have the energy. I'll just use png images for now.) I do hope things get straightened out however you need them to and you don't have more trouble. I'm sorry for all the stress and upset your computer has caused you.
zaqxsw
Thank you... I heard a competitor on the Food network's Beat Bobby Flay say "stress is man made". However, I'm more of the mind that "to err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer"!
midnight_stories
There seems to be a lot of this going around at the moment. hung in there !
zaqxsw
Thanks... Yes indeed it seems computers are crash all over the world... I just hope other artists have learned from my errors and taken better precautions then I did!
IceDragonArt
Looking forward to your posting again when you can. I have two external drives as back ups (not counting the one I use for working on things) just in case. I've lost a couple drives myself and its horrible.
zaqxsw
Thanks again for all your kind comments!
I'm five narratives in with about nine more to go... If I can keep myself focused (really big if there), I hope to start posting again before the end of the week.
Artienne
Very nice story!
cece7894
Awesome!!
Spacer_01
Nice, Forgotten Realms stories and adventures! :) Going to have to backtrack to the beginning for this series :)
zaqxsw
Thank you for your kind comment!
BellaDark
I really hope your computer issues are rectified soon, I know how demoralizing that can be. You've been doing some great work though, and you will continue to do it, talent doesn't die even if your computer does. :)
zaqxsw
Thank you so much for your kind comment... I really appreciate the encouragement! I've recover as much as I'm able to, but I lost a lot of my older Poser files... However, I have started working on this series again... I'm just hung up on a few of the narratives.
shadownet
Sorry to hear about the woes with Carbonite and for the warning. I never used their services but thought about it once or twice.