I had some good times playing the game formerly known as PMOG and I will miss it, to be sure. What’s the Nethernet? It was an MMO that we played all over the web. The Internet was our game board and a toolbar on Firefox was how we interacted. The game developers are turning out the lights and moving on to other projects.

I started playing around the same time that I joined Twitter. Last night during a chat with a close friend from The Nethernet on IRC,  we realized that PMOG/TNN was the first time we took a chance and joined a social game. We let our walls down and made some real connections. I remember several months ago, the developers posted in the forum asking what parts of the game the players really enjoyed. I would guess, 99% of us said, “The community.”

Bean counters & marketing gurus are all about numbers. If you get the players/users, then you have a base number which you can use to estimate your all mighty profits from ads, subscriptions and the like. The formula is practically a law in the Internet business world. So, the developers of The Nethernet did what any start up company would do, they went out looking for numbers. Instead of numbers, they got us. We are a community.

We may not have a home, but I have hope to keep the connections that I have made. I humbly offer a refugee camp for those of you interested in remaining in contact. Snocrsh has also made a Ning for lost souls. You can also find many of us on freenode. You can connect through the web using their webchat or you can download xchat, pidgin, colloquy and a number of other free IRC clients. You’ll find your Nethernet friends in the channels #pmog, #thenethernet.com.

Share your own experiences, ideas for a new home or questions about IRC in the comments or the refugee camp. We’ll do our best to keep on jaunting.

Great news! I’ve managed to capture another blogger for sikkdays.com! Honestly I didn’t capture him, he offered to help out. Plus, he doesn’t have my address so he won’t be able to bill me for his work.

Anyway, Mr. burdenday was the community manager at the game formerly known as PMOG and now he is a community manager/designer at Rise & Ruin. You can also find him at burdenday.com where he shares his experiences managing online communities.  burdenday is just about finished with his English major, so this will be a definite upgrade for those of you that don’t just come here for the pics and videos.

Some of you may be familiar with burdenday, but for those of you that do not know him below are some questions I emailed him along with his answers:

#1) Cake or Pie?

Beefcake!  No seriously though, I’ve never been one much for sweets, but I do appreciate some yellow cake when appropriate.

#2) Do you think it is fair to the other colors of the spectrum to pick a favorite?

Look – here in America we’ve had a long standing tradition of choosing a favorite color and alienating the rest of the spectrum with our “favorite color exceptionalism.”  I’m here to change that 20th century carryover thinking from the past eight years.

#3) Buddy Holly was obviously a star, but if the plane crash of February 3, 1959 never happened who would have had a bigger career, Ritchie Valens or The Big Bopper?

Kurt Cobain.

#4) Automobile of the future: Electric or Hydrogen powered?

So close your eyes for a moment and begin to imagine pictures of the most horrific accidents in the world’s history. Begin to recall those involving air vehicles… Good!  Now I am going to say a word and we’ll do some free association: Hindenburg.

Electric – I’ve been shocked by 120V wires a few times and survived.  I am pretty sure I won’t survive a hydrogen engine explosion though.

#6) We are our jobs, what was your first job ever?

My very first job ever was as a receptionist for my aunt’s Law Firm.  It is considered “very professional” to have a male receptionist, I was told.  I enjoyed it because mostly I surfed the Internet aimlessly and just put people through to voicemail – those were the days!

#7) Theory on why question #5 is missing?

Wow, I didn’t even notice.  I’m adding this to the list of possible drug interactions for Vicodin. (I should note that burdenday just had a minor surgery and is not a junkie that I pulled off the street.)

#8) Favorite childhood game? (video, board, handheld, sport-like activity)

I played EverQuest for far, far too many years.  If I had to choose a favorite, that would be it.  There is nothing quite so satisfying as spending months of your life chopping away at virtual animals and monsters with swords.

#9) If you were stranded on a desert Island, what is the first thing you would build yourself?

A library, so I could begin writing enough books to fill it and then long after my death someone would discover it and they’d all be “classics.”  That’s how it works, isn’t it?

Wow, I thought that last question was weak, but that is an excellent answer. All I could think of was building a bowling alley. Hanging out at the beach is great, but if you lived there I have to imagine you’d get bored of it.

Sikkdays.com hasn’t really had any sort of real focus aside from ‘look what I found on the Interwebs’ & my passion for animation. Therefore, I see no need to constrain burdenday to report on a single subject. I am just happy to have his contribution as long as he doesn’t post anything about Kevin Costner.

So my 3 other blog readers, give a big sikkdays’ welcome to burdenday.

Thanks to the Seers last week on the Nethernet I was introduced to a few of bizarre & fun links. I thought I should share. (I apologize to my fellow players for not keeping track of the individuals who sent me to these places.) I also had some goodies in a folder waiting to be shared.

Daily Costume – A great site if you are looking to find something to wear on casual Friday. Loads of photos of people dressed as their favorite fictional character. Is it me or has dressing up (Halloween, theme parties, etc.) just boiled down to “How slutty can I be?”

Play-Doh Cologne – Do you remember that smell from your childhood? Did it make you hot? Who are the perverts that created this?

RunPee – Like the Movie Stinger, which tells you if there is a scene after the credits, RunPee tells you when the opportune time to pee is. User maintained, so go share.

Velvet Vulva – Can you guess what these purses look like? I really like that one of the first lines on the site is “You can never have too many Vulvas!”

Cat Photographer – Everyone thinks they are a photographer these days. Cooper the cat seems to have proven that theory. There goes my thesis on hairballs, I’m sure he already did it.

Cassette Tuesday – Another single serving site that collects photos of cassettes. I found it entertaining.

LaserPortraits – Again, more photo blog weirdness. This site is deditcated to those awesome laser backgrounds from your school pictures. Enjoy. (via iLoveVerdi‘s tweet)

Set Editions – If you’ve been reading this far, you probably want to send me one of these business cards. They have some other interesting bundles too.

Die Hard Death Map – Where does Mclane off the bad guys? Inquiring minds wanted to know.

Dudes & Deloreans – A tribute to the stainless steel transportation of the future.

It looks like my account has been hacked. The clever troublemaker has even found a sexy mask to disguise himself to look like me. However, he gives himself away by being positive and void of any snarky sarcasm. Behold the monotone thank you to all the visitors of Sikkdays & wear sunglasses, you don’t want the muted colors to damage your eyes. In fact, to spice this video up you may want to drink every time he says, “Thank you.”

Of course, there  are loads of other people from the Nethernet, like Chava, Cassandra, Chetyre and those are just the C’s. Thanks to everyone. Tons of tweeps deserve personal thanks for content & comments. I appreciate your contribution and I neglected to mention you because I was in a hotel room minus the internet. Must thank djweso who spans all the categories of RL friend, tweep and Nethernet player.

My pool game, like my life, is slop. I wish it was this organized & excellent:

via a sobekneferu, a player on the Nethernet

Straight from my fellow tweep and Nethernet ally tone_def comes this cinematic masterpiece:

This is why those breads your mom makes in the bread machine she got for Christmas just aren’t as good as the ones at the bakery. Never fear, I am sure the next run of bread machines will have a damn iPod dock on them so you can add the secret ingredient of dance.