pestarke

Dream Recall

2011-03-09T12:15:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted here in awhile, but if you used to read you know I've always been interested in dreams. Well, the other day it sort of coalesced in my mind that dreams are one of my biggest sources of inspiration; my muse, if you will. However, I don't often remember my dreams. This is a contributing factor to the glacial speed of creative output for anything more than what I was doing in my three-panel comics. So I've had enough of waiting, and yesterday I did some reading on how to improve dream recall. Most sites said pretty much the same thing with some variation. I won't rehash them here just yet because I want to share the exciting thing that happened.

First on most lists was keeping a dream journal, but I gathered that this was primarily for the aid of the connection between the subconscious and memory-forming activities of the mind. Several sites suggested that you tell yourself, just before falling asleep that you want to remember your dreams. This is what I did last night, and it worked incredibly well on the first try. What I said to myself was something along the lines of, "I want to remember my dreams tonight, because they're important." I knew from reading and personal experience that coming to consciousness out of dreaming is key to memory formation. I also read that each sleep cycle is about 90 minutes, with dreams in each, increasing in length. This means about five dream sessions per night.

What happened: I remembered a wealth of my dreams last night. I came close to consciousness several times, at least four, maybe five times, each time I could recall vividly what I'd just been dreaming about. Rather than interrupt my sleep cycle by fully waking and writing stuff down, if the dream was interesting enough I gave myself a moment to consider what had been happening in the dream, reflect on it, and then dozed back off. This was another technique I'd read about; the immediate, conscious reflection on dreams upon waking in order to solidify them in your memory.

I'd known about this second element for awhile, having been brought to consciousness by various stimuli in the morning, but the first element, the suggestion to the subconscious (similar to waking without an alarm) to rouse enough to remember the dreams, was what I was missing - and had no idea I could pull off. My readings were clear not to stress about forcing the matter, just a suggestion, repeated a few times. I can't wait to try this out some more, hopefully unlocking a wealth of creative potential in the form of strange, wonderful ideas from my own subconscious.

THE MASTER LIST (thus far, rolling updates)

2011-01-25T23:00:00.006-05:00

EDIT: updated in light of new information. ~~In alpha-order~~, upcoming games that are on my interest radar. Games in bold are most likely shoe-in buys.

Wii:
~~A Boy and his Blob~~
Bit.Trips
~~Cave Story~~
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
~~Super Mario Galaxy 2~~
Lost in Shadow
~~The Magic Obelisk~~
Art Style: Light Trax
Wii Play Motion
~~Puzzle Agent~~
La-Mulana
Ivy the Kiwi?
Kirby's Epic Yarn

DS(i):

~~Prof. Layton and the~~ Diabolical Box/Unwound Future
Super Scribblenauts
Dragon Quest IX
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
~~Super Mario RPG 3: Bowser's Inside Story~~
~~KORG DS-10 Plus~~
Boxlife
Pictobits
Digidrive
~~Trajectile~~
Spotto
~~Flight Control~~
Flipper
Escapee GO!
Go! Go! Hamster
X-Scape
WarioWare D.I.Y.
Looksley's Line Up
Photo Dojo
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes
Chrono Trigger
Shantae: Risky's Revenge
Pokémon SoulSilver

PS3:
3D Dot Game Heroes
ModNation Racers
The Last Guardian
LEGO Harry Potter
PixelJunk: Shooter
PixelJunk: Shooter 2
Braid
Portal 2
Trine
Trine 2
Child of Eden
~~LittleBigPlanet 2~~
~~Scott Pilgrim vs. The World~~

PC:
~~Machinarium~~
~~WoW: Cataclysm~~

Dreamy

2010-10-18T01:03:00.011-04:00

I haven't had vivid dreams like this in quite some time, so I wanted to record some of last night's. I was at my old elementary school (which holds a mystique all its own in my waking mind), and I realized in the dream that I'd wanted to return and see the old place again, and so I got it in my head to see every room in the building (most of which I still remember pretty well, considering how long it's been since I was there). This methodical plan led to a very nice dream tour of the place, which though floorplan-wise was accurate, content was warped somewhat. The rooms alternated between empty and inhabited, as though it were a schoolday but students were moving between classes or to lunch. In one classroom I had opened a metal box (like a first-aid kit) atop a filing cabinet, and a teacher (apparently thinking I was stealing) asked me what I was looking for. Observer Me had no idea but the Dream Me replied, "my memories," and then I left to see other rooms.

What was odd about the rooms was that many of them were in various stages of the interior space being choked up with tangles of metal piping, like the interior of a ship or submarine. The most extreme place this was occurring was the farthest stairwell down to the gymnasium and boys' locker room. The pipes were so thick I was unable to advance, and returned to the upper floor. I entered a pair of small classrooms tiled in diagonal blue-green brick from floor to ceiling, with nothing else in them. I imagined renovations since I'd last been there, because a new weight room went off the far wall of the gym at some point, which was furnished in an early 20th century style of tall wooden cabinets lining the walls, containing visual implements more suited to a science classroom than PE. One more odd bit before my dream moved on to something else was I went through the nursery to see the sanctuary (was a Baptist school) and the sanctuary was now a massive cavern of lava (undoubtedly Minecraft imagery, but why there?), though it wasn't a natural cavern, it was more like a lava temple or cathedral, dark and foreboding.

After all this I dreamt I met someone I've not met in waking life, but have known via correspondence. We enjoyed bumming around, talking in person, and roaming around some unknown, vague place somewhat like a university or quaint town. We went out in a rowboat, talking and rowing by huge lily pads, and at her inquiry I told her about the various places I'd lived. Suddenly she leaned in to kiss me. Apparently it felt natural to us to the point of nonchalance because after the brief moment our conversation picked up again right where it left off. After this we toured a church I'd visited as a child, the church in which my father grew up and which my grandfather, an architect designed. Like the school, the church was not quite as it really is, the dream version containing vast underground vaults like a cross between Bag End and Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory! We came back up to the sanctuary, and I commented to my friend on the central mosaic of Christ which I'd always thought beautiful. Only as I looked at it I realized this version, while the same basic image was comprised of stained glass in very cool, dark colors; not at all so nice as the real thing. At this point my dream began to break up and I don't remember anything else.

The Grand Campaign, Pt. 3

2010-07-15T16:59:00.007-04:00

I've been a virtual billionaire for several weeks now, maybe a month; my bank account is full, and looks to stay that way. After getting the ABD I turned my sights back to the wonders of the world series items. I still have not seen that blasted bird in his UFO (though, admittedly I haven't tried one of the best strategies I've seen: to check your town for Pete every morning around 9). Not seeking this info out, but by putting 2 and 2 together myself, I realized that the Balanced Brawl booter I'd been using actually boots up Gecko, a pre-loader where cheats can be entered to modify game paramaters - for games including Animal Crossing. After some playing around, I got the codes that I wanted to use into the right format and onto the SD card. The first thing I did was complete my Nook's catalog (which was mostly complete anyway, except for the Gulliver stuff and some other odds and ends. As a bonus I got all the region-exclusive, non-DLC items, which made me interested in the DLC of other regions as well.

At this point I ran into a wall; the only way to hack DLC from other regions into your game is to install the homebrew channel, which I said at the outset I didn't want to do. So that left me with trading online. I joined ACC (Animal Crossing Community) and within a week or so found a service that distributes items (never dreamed of such a thing) and have very nearly all the DLC (I have everything I'm interested in, anyway). I'm now working on "hacked" items, which is not quite the same as hacked DLC (which I won't touch with a ten foot pole); hacked items are items that are in the game, but not normally available to obtain. Some of these I got when I completed Nook's catalog (Blue Falcon, Pikmin, pots and Moth Orchid), but I knew there was more, such as the flooring and walls from Nook stores and moving boxes. Well, there's this other code that lets you put any item into your pockets from the list of all pocketable items in the game, so last night I got the Nook walls and floors, listened to the three extra KK songs (which I'm guessing are placeholders for musical DLC) and pocketed the hard-to-catch Scorpion and Coelacanth. Using this method I'll be able to get every item in the game, including paintings, fish and bugs to (re-)complete my museum in Narnia. I think the end is in sight for ACCF, which is a bit of a relief. There was a long time where the disc never left my Wii, and now I have a reason to take it out and put in Mario Galaxy 2 and A Boy and His Blob. Life sims can be fun, but I haven't found one yet that I want to play forever; there's too much else to see out there.

The Grand Campaign, Pt. 2

2010-06-04T20:48:00.003-04:00

It took about a week or two to move all of my stuff into a secondary town on my brother's Wii and back into my new town, Narnia. I shed a tear for my old neighbors and my completed museum, but haven't looked back since. I am still working on the billion bells. I had wavered initially after thinking about it and being satisfied with getting the feathers in Wild World, but my brother was cool with letting me hold onto the Wii longer until I'd gotten the billion. So I'm over 600M atm, and on a good day I can do over 100M (on a busy day it's between 40 and 80M). So I should get to 1 billion within the next week sometime. What will be tough is that the rewards at each 100M stop at 700M and I won't get anything until the ABD at the finish line. I guess the excitement of being so close will carry me the rest of the 300M to the end. I'd wanted to carpet my entire town in lucky clover in Wild World, and am in a position to do it now, but I don't think I will, due largely to the addition of paths in this iteration. It's starting to drag though, and I'm reminded why I quit WoW: the grind keeps me from enjoying other games. Back to selling those Royal Crowns (can't wait to finish)! :(

Just Out of Reach

2010-05-06T22:53:00.008-04:00

I've nearly forgotten about this one now, but not quite - it's interesting, sometimes my dreams are about getting to places I can't in waking life. Recently I had a dream where I went into the room behind the door behind Brewster's counter at The Roost in Animal Crossing. If there is a room back there. My subconscious conjured one in my dream, imagining a small one-room flat where Brewster lives, complete with a bed and some other furniture. We'll probably never know what's meant to be behind the door. An exit for Brewster, even though he's always there? A closet? An access hallway? I guess I've always wondered about it on some back-burner level, but never explored it more in-depth than in my dream the other night. Similar questions include: what's just around the bend outside the gate? Nothing really, I know, but these little touches imply that there's more beyond that's impossible to actually get to. Intriguing.

The Grand Campaign

2010-04-21T20:31:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted a new post here yet this year, largely due to two major life events; the birth of our first child and the launch of my website. Between the two my time is fairly well consumed, yet I still make time for games, as the up-to-date post below shows. I'm enjoying my DSi XL with DSiWare and WarioWare: DIY, and on Wii Animal Crossing doesn't leave the system too often. I've accomplished many of my goals in the game, including completing the Museum and chess furniture set, all of KK's music, the Mario set and all but one gyroid. What bothers me is, due to some glitch I have NEVER, not once seen Gulliver in his UFO. I know he's rare, but to have not seen him once in the year or so that I've been playing means something is wrong. I'd see him at least once a month or so in Wild World, and my brother-in-law has seen him already having had the game for only three months now. The glitch is either from time travelling or an item I got in the mail from my in-game Mom which is supposed to only be only attainable from Gulliver.

Whatever the reason, it's making me feel as though I'm missing a part of the game, and I am. There are some neat, exclusive items I'd like to see including a Metroid, Arc de Triomphe and Leaning Tower of Pisa. I'd love to have a mermaid statue too, and a few others, but I feel as though I've been wasting time playing if my game is glitched (Not like I'd know it was glitched without playing, but still, the fact remains). Anyway, this absence of Gulliver pushed my interest toward other extreme goals, such as saving massive amounts of money in the bank. There are exclusive items for saving ridiculous amounts of money, the last of which, after saving 1 billion bells is an ATM machine. Sweet. So I want it, but even using time travelling it would take months to do, with an hour or so of doing nothing but time travelling every day. Not very fun. But another method came to light innocently while mailing back and forth to my brother-in-law; certain of our messages would be duplicated. I tried mailing my crown (cost: 1M bells, sell value: 250K bells) and, sure enough, got five in the mail. Made a very quick million that way and was hooked. Only, the mail method is unreliable, slow, and relies on someone else to mail stuff.

There is another method to duplication which is even easier and which I have tested, involving a narrow window between saving in each town while travelling between the two. Using this method it's possible (and actually, pretty easy) to get just over 6M bells per visit with a full load of crowns (with royal crowns I could get even more). Each trip could be done in about five minutes, and making ten trips per day it would take me just over two weeks to get a billion. Much better than the same amount of work for eight months or whatever I figured it out to be doing the time travel/bank interest method. So, the optimal setup for this method is two Wiis each running a copy of the game. This got me thinking of duplicating other rare but nice-to-have items such as magic lamps, golden roses and four-leaf clovers, the latter two of which I could use to create a living, dimensional outdoor labyrinth that would never need watering or weeding. This then got me thinking of the storage potential of having two towns, even temporarily, and how one could potentially keep all his items while re-building his town.

Well, this got me considering re-building town, which would solve my Gulliver glitch. I'd completely wipe my save data and start afresh, no time-travelling this time, and I might even ditch that item I got from Mom. So that's what I'm going to do. My brother's letting me borrow his Wii for a few weeks which I'll get this weekend (in return, he gets the second copy of the game I bought for pretty cheap). I will miss Piscia, for sure. The biggest irretrievable loss will be my completed museum, though I do have the museum model and golden tools to show that I did do it. I can always work on completing it again in the new town if I want to, in fact, it will give me something else to do. I think my new town's name will be Narnia (always wanted to live there, plus it fits with the talking animals); I considered Pseudopolis from the Discworld series, but I think there's an eight letter cap on the name.

Now that I'm committed, there is a fair amount of thinking to be done as to the logistics of getting my entire catalog and more into a new town. I can move Paul again from Wild World which will take care of a sizable chunk of it, but there are the items I've gotten since then which I'll need to order and bring actual copies of into the new town for the catalog. So I need to compare catalogs, find out which items I need to order and order them. The stuff I can't order should be fairly easy to transfer as I never sold them in the first place, however there are the things you wouldn't necessarily think of, such as KK music and patterns, neither of which appears in the catalog. And that's just bringing what I have over. There's also the duplication that needs doing, crowns, the above-mentioned items, cedar saplings if I'm going to re-plant my northern cedar forest, which I like.

With the new town I'm also shooting for a specific type of gate - the castle gate. The gate style affects the style of houses in your town, and currently I've got the boring, somewhat standard-looking gate. There's also some kind of south-western looking gate which I'm not really into (nor would it fit the Narnia theme). So I'll need not only the right gate, but a town layout that I like too. Might take a few tries before I get it. I hope I've thought of everything; like packing for a trip I feel like I'm going to forget something. I think I've thought it through fairly carefully, though. At least I'll still have all my hundreds of screens to remember Piscia by. A new town where Gulliver is a real possibility will be nice, too.

Diversions

2009-08-20T14:14:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I figured out how to get my AT-AT to go in reverse, thus bringing it to completion. All that remains is to design a level for it to navigate.

The photo really doesn't do it justice; you have to see it in action. It walks forward of course, and now in reverse thanks to some strategic placements of rockets on the feet. It can go up and down slight inclines thanks to a gyroscope I built for it that helps even out its weight distribution when it's not on level. It can fire working blasters that look like lasers (for all intents and purposes they are light), but explode on impact. It can be started AND boarded from the ground with no special elevators or ladders. Just hop on one of the back feet and, with a little good timing a Jedi jump (while the leg kicks) will send you soaring high to land on top/inside. Once there you can stop and start motion via a switch, fire blasters and make it go in reverse. I'm planning to have it walk across hazards the player never could, including deadly gas, fire, electricity, sharp objects and (blastable) big objects.

In other news I just got back from seeing Ponyo. It was... standard Miyazaki fare, not one of his best I don't think, but not bad. It's like a cross between Spirited Away and Totoro, maybe wish a dash of Howl. I felt like too much time was spent establishing things, and there wasn't enough attention given to the journey. It's interesting that one of Miyazaki's heroines is finally a mother. And it doesn't diminish the strength of her character in the slightest. Overall, I'd rank it thusly, my favorite on top:

Howl's Moving Castle
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
My Neighbor Totoro
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Ponyo
Kiki's Delivery Service
Castle in the Sky
Porco Rosso

Upgrade Chart

2009-08-07T17:50:00.000-04:00

ModNation Racers

2009-08-04T20:51:00.005-04:00

This month's official PS magazine (usually filled with 'meh') had a very intriguing cover story on a game called ModNation Racers. It looks to be an equal mix of Mario Kart, LittleBig Planet and Cel Damage. As these are some of my favorite games, this is a very good thing. Like LBP, the game lets you create your own levels, in this case race tracks. It's cartoony, kart racing though (a la Mario Kart) with some wacky 'tude and weapons thrown in from Cel Damage. According to the article there's alot of physics-based interaction, which is also good.

And some more in-depth info from E3, parts 1 & 2:

Looks quite promising, I wish it was here already!

Slowly but Surely...

2009-08-03T16:28:00.002-04:00

An update from the last WP post: I've decided that rather than beat my head against a wall trying to re-invent the wheel, I'm going to use some plug-ins and themes for WP designed specifically for webcomics. There's just too much in the way of archive searching and navigation for me to try to make something when the tools already exist. It doesn't make sense for me to spend time on it. So, technically I have a working site up, but I have yet to tweak the theme to reflect the design I developed. So the splash page is still masking it until it's ready. I'm also wrestling with style questions; while I have the ability to go in many different directions, I have yet to settle on a particular style. There are several bits and bobs that I like, but it's not quite a unique, compelling style at this point. It needs to be stronger, and I think the best way to to that is to just draw more. Like, I'm going to try and draw something every day, rather than leave my talent bottled up, using it when I need it.

The Shadow of the Past

2009-07-29T01:34:00.008-04:00

In following a comment from a friend on facebook regarding Peter Jackson's Comic-Con address re: The Hobbit movies (2 planned), I cracked open my copies of The Silmarillion, The Fellowship of the Ring and even The Return of the King to find, to my great pleasure, a fair wealth of information surrounding the events of The Hobbit. Before having seriously looked into it, I was a bit surprised at the notion to split Hobbit up and add in "enriched history," for while I'd read Hobbit and the main story of LotR, that's not quite all there is. For one thing there's Silmarillion which is a daunting history in itself, and I've not yet made it through halfway, let alone to the last chapter.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is: because I'd only read the main "story" of Hobbit and Rings, I'd neglected certain history, namely the following, all of which factor strongly into possible material for these upcoming films. Contained within the following places are the history of Sauron, the Ring, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum and Hobbits, leading up to The Hobbit and slightly bridging the gap between it and Fellowship. These are (that I've found so far): The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue and The Shadow of the Past, and Appendix A and B at the end of The Return of the King.

From these can be pieced together: the Nazgul's activities after the Ring was lost, Sauron's ties to Mirkwood, leading to the fleeing of early hobbits, an investigation there by Gandalf and Sauron's expulsion by members of the White Council (which occurred during the same year Bilbo found the Ring!), the history of hobbits in the Shire area (including Smeagol's role in concealing the Ring), histories of dwarves and some of Aragorn's past, and, after the events of Hobbit, what Gandalf and Aragorn were up to (tracking down Gollum) leading up to the events in Fellowship. Perhaps what's most interesting is how the sources shed light on Gandalf's mysterious activities. It turns out that what he's doing when he disappears is tracking down Sauron and info on the Ring, which makes it quite relevant to the main story. I wonder how much Tolkien had worked out when he penned Hobbit...

All in all it's fairly exciting stuff for me to 'discover' having thought I knew all the 'important stuff' relating to the story. I had never read the in-depth histories though, which now have given me a pleasant surprise and hope for the content of these next two films. I wonder what they'll be titled... The Hobbit: Part I and The Hobbit: Part II? Or something more interesting like The Shadow of the Past and There and Back Again?

WordPressure

2009-07-24T18:58:00.006-04:00

GUH, So. I have WordPress installed on my host. But I also have a site design I made that I like; I don't want to just use some Theme (functional layout) someone else has created. So that means I've got to basically come up with my own theme. I was originally thinking it would be fairly easy to just plug in some chunks of code to display stuff, but it's not quite as simple as that. While there's plenty of documentation on WP's site, it's fairly intimidating if you don't know anything about PHP. Now, I used to know some PHP, but I haven't worked with it for about six years. Finally, after some time spent looking at the code, stepping away, coming back to it fresh and reading up on it I'm beginning to remember how it works. It doesn't help that WP keeps re-branding PHP with their own WP terms: 'Templates' and 'WP Tags' are really just files and functions. Plus, to make themes dynamic and robust nothing is centralized (files are being included all over the place) making it somewhat challenging to sit down and just EXAMINE how a theme is operating. Slowly I'm working through it though. I'm remembering things about PHP syntax like how a period joins things. Just gotta keep slogging through it, eventually it will make sense to me again, and hopefully I'll be able to bend it to my will.

Tarantula!

2009-07-23T00:22:00.002-04:00

At long last! I was just about to call it a night when I spotted it by the river. My tools were all mixed up so it took a second to get my net out and I was worried it would trundle into the river! It didn't. I slowly approached from the side and... SWIPE! Netted! :D

Liquid Luck

2009-07-22T16:20:00.013-04:00

Saw HBP again Monday with Dad and bro, and, having been in the habit of looking for new details I found some. The first three are small visual details from the movie, while the latter three are more subtle overarching themes relating to HBP and beyond.

First, in Zonko's (the Weasley twins' joke shop) a display can be seen, front and center, for the edible Dark Marks (whether these were gummi or chocolate I don't recall) around the scene with the love potions. Second, in the scene showing Harry, Ron and Hermione arriving in the Hog's Head and choosing a table, if you look on the wall there's an oval mirror advertising butterbeer in capital letters. Finally, near the end of the movie we see the empty headmaster's office with its new portrait. Beneath the painting, Dumbledore's full name can be read in gold letters.

Now on to the deeper, subtler things. I didn't notice this the first time around because it was done so masterfully, so seamlessly I just accepted it at face value. In the flashbacks to when young Tom Riddle is interacting with Slughorn in the Slug Club and whatnot, Tom is very believably older than in Dumbledore's first memory at the orphanage, yet he still looks like the same person, just aged 7-10 years. Very well done; I wonder if the two actors used are related. Slughorn's reverse aging (I believe it was about 50 years earlier when he was Riddle's prof) was similarly well done. Though obviously the same actor, his face was much less lined, less careworn, and less haunted by the past than the 'present' Slughorn.

These next two things quite importantly span the entire series. First, I noticed how the color black appears to be being used to represent a soul-imbued horcrux; in CoS after Harry stabs the diary with the basilisk fang, it gushes out a black, ink-like substance which I had assumed to be ink; appropriate for a diary. But then I saw how they portrayed the Marvolo family ring in this one, whose stone was also black (as in the books) but then lost (or transferred to Dumbledore's hand) its color upon destruction.

Finally, though this is noticeable, I don't think it's possible to understand until having read the entire series: Snape's odd relationship to Harry. There's a certain amount of loathing there, to be sure, but something else is there too. Something that makes Snape stare strangely at Harry for long stretches when they encounter one another. Harry, being young and not fully-informed about his parents' past acts as though it's some kind of challenge or stare-down, and defiantly keeps up his gaze. Having read the entire series, all it takes is a moment to step outside Harry into Snape, and immediately we see Harry from a new perspective. In many of the films one person or another (so many that Harry begins to tire of it - Harry gets it, fine, but does the audience get it yet?) remarks at how very much Harry resembles his father; except for his eyes, he's got his mother's eyes. For a character like Snape who has such disparate feelings about James and Lily, seeing the two combined in Harry would be a jarring experience of conflicting feelings. On the one hand, at brief glance Harry appears as the bully James, eliciting anger and revulsion. But then their eyes meet and suddenly Snape finds himself looking into Lily's eyes, and he's momentarily frozen in time as he recalls his feelings for her. Thus, the expression on his face is unreadable, not due to Snape's accomplished occlumency but from his unresolvable, conflicting emotions. Eventually he returns to the present, his mind brings him full circle as he takes in Harry on the whole again, child of James and Lily, alive because of Lily's ultimate sacrifice of her life. Anger, Affection, Regret, Bitterness; all encoded in Harry, reawakened in Snape at every encounter. Rowling hammers this point home (and resolves the conflict) in the epilogue when Harry, after having finally come to fully understand Snape, has named one of his children after him.

Part One of Three

2009-07-18T16:23:00.005-04:00

I mentioned a bit about Half-Blood Prince to Sandra on Facebook, but I've got more to say about it than fits there. Basically I appreciate how true the movie was to the book in many regards, not the least of which is its treatment of the increasingly complex social relationships as the students become teenagers and begin seeing one another through new eyes. I can understand why they made certain changes. Though I prefer the book version of the Ginny/Harry kiss, in the movie it allows Ginny to take charge, and doesn't chalk the kiss up to 'getting lucky,' which could have been an easy mistake for viewers to make because we don't see all Harry's thoughts and feelings about Ginny or how all he needed was the 'right' moment, as the book paints. Harry not being petrified/invisible on the tower also creates some new angles, mostly relating back to trusting Dumbledore's wisdom in the face of apparent tragedy.

At once, the movie felt both like the dark middle of a three-part act and the first part, setting the stage for the final two. I look forward to the last two as 1) they'll have the same director and 2) splitting the book up will give them more time to explore it. They have a dang lot of horcruxes to find and destroy; I still think Rowling could have distributed that a bit more evenly across the series. Also: why wasn't the Liquid Luck orange?! I'm pretty sure it was a bright, glowing orange in the book; not a difficult thing to accomplish with CGI... ah well. They really didn't overdo 'magic,' or treat it like a freaky, funny 'oh wow look at that' type of thing as in other movies. They left it subtle, focusing on the characters relying on their minds rather than on overly powerful or obvious magic, which is for the better. I really hope Harry goes back to explore more of the Tom Riddle memories; I missed the one about his deranged, pureblood family, which is quite key to understanding Voldemort's origins before the orphanage, as well as some of the pattern to the horcruxes. Hopefully they're saving it for the next movie.

Dreams

2009-07-18T00:56:00.013-04:00

Had an interesting one last night, meant to write about it this morning, but the day unfolded and I didn't get around to it till now. A testament to the vividness of the dream though, I can still recall it now, at the end of the day.

Okay, so in some strange merger of Zooey Deschanel's fictional band in Yes Man and her real-life forays as a singer, my subconscious came up with this idea that I'd met Zooey Deschanel along with some other random people* AND been invited to join in a live performance she was putting on the next day! Well, somehow or other I arrived later in the morning than others had (hum!) along with one other guy, and all the other band positions had been filled, singers, instrumentalists. I was bummed, but apparently still determined to do this, so I hung around anyway and ended up being part of the backstage crew. This turned out to be just as important to the performance as the other more visible people onstage, as I had to wrangle with a curtain malfunction (it was an indoor, old-style theater), which I managed to address and keep the show going! Afterward the dream (as they often do) began to drift as I turned bodyguard role and faced off unarmed against an armed gunman(!) who'd accessed the backstage rooms and hallways. I didn't have much direct interaction with Zooey (she being the STAR and all) but she did give off a warm, positive vibe to everyone around her. I get the impresion that IRL she's a bit more shy and private; I'm not sure she's the type to perform on stage in front of a large audience. Anyway; wild, fun stuff as usual. :)

Now that I think about it actually, P2 and I just watched a special on TV about Jo Rowling and how she came out on stage in front of fans for the release of DH to read and later sign books. But my mind replaced Rowling with Zooey (whose music I have recently listened to, and who is more... shall we say, my age), and of course I'd want to be there too. So, I put myself there. As I've said in the past, my subconscious often has great taste! Part of me wishes I could steer myself in my dreams a bit more, but another part just enjoys being along for the ride, whatever odd, wondrous, unexpected things pop up. Too much control could destroy that. I mean, I can daydream, but I never come up with anything nearly as unique or pristine as dream material. Awake, my conscious mind gets in the way and starts trying to make sense of thoughts at every turn, anchoring them rather uninterestingly in reality.

*unknown "friends," maybe other fans?

Can't Wait for HBP

2009-07-17T00:35:00.004-04:00

Well, I have been waiting. What I mean is I'm excited to see it. It's my favorite book of the lot and Naim's impressions were very favorable, so I'm looking forward to it as he and I share similar movie tastes. It's important to get your movie reviews from someone whom you can trust. Too often we've had suggestions from friends or family that just don't cut the mustard come viewing time. My Dad's a decent gauge; his standards can vary a bit from my own but usually we overlap enough to be on the same page. My brother-in-law can be somewhat vague and choosy as to what he likes, but is sometimes aware of different things than I am due to the news venues he follows; so he's sort of like a radar sometimes. Anyway; we're going to see the first showing Saturday morning; save some money going to a matinee and hopefully beat the crowds at an early show. I'm thinking the fact that it opened Wednesday can't hurt either, but I could be wrong. Once we get in our seats (as on-center as possible and not too close, not too far away) I'll be happy. :)

Phoenix Rises from the Ashes

2009-07-11T00:02:00.013-04:00

Phoenix gets back up there very near Azkaban in terms of bringing the wonder and depth back to the HP world. I'd say it goes right between my old first and second, bumping Sorcerer's Stone down to third. As the same director, David Yates is directing the final three films, I have high hopes that they'll be at least as good as Phoenix, hopefully even better. Some of the acting was still a bit wooden; Alfonso's shown that more can be squeezed out of the actors, which in turn fleshes out the characters. I maintain that Dolores Umbridge is one of the most evil characters in the series, at times more frightening than Voldemort himself. She's sugar-coated evil; cold, calculating, manipulative. At least Voldemort has the decency not to disguise his dark nature. The frightening thing is how easily she slips into the cracks at Hogwarts and rises to power. In the book it's much worse than the movie portrays it; her reign of terror lasts for most of the year, producing a very somber, hopeless tone. Secret DA practice is thus much more of a release for the students (and readers) in the book. Anyway, the movie did get alot right, I liked the development and exploration of many additional characters beyond Harry, Ron and Hermione. And the climax duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort remains spectacular (if not quite as painted in the book).

I noticed a fair amount of new (I think) details at five, mostly in the first half of the film. First, while I always noticed the sexual tension between Harry and Tonks (somewhat awkward, considering she's actually interested in and ends up with Lupin, and Harry's headed for Ginny), I don't believe I noticed her wink to Harry as they're entering The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black for the first time. Maybe I did and don't remember. It's possible.

Secondly, the large impressive chest tattoo seen on Sirius in Azkaban has been shrunk down to a shadow of its former self. Pity. It made Sirius look frankly badass when large, but now it's so small it's like a memento of a lapse in judgement from some crazy party in the Caribbean or something. Third, I picked up more on Percy hanging about at the Ministry this time, likely because I'd noticed him with the Weasley family in the past couple of films. "Weatherby" doesn't even acknowledge them now; a sad reminder of the divisiveness of the times.

Fourth, I caught Ron calling Dolores "old toad-face" when they're in Hogsmead on their way to the Hog's Head, which was amusing because a passage in the book describes her in much the same terms. Finally, I still wish Sirius had been blasted through the arch by a curse as he was in the book. This time I noticed that he does indeed pass through it, but it's such a gentle float that it's really still the effect of the killing curse rather than passing through the arch that kills him. I guess it's such a heartbreaking moment for Harry they felt they had to give him (and the audience) a little more time to grasp what's just happened and to see Sirius a few moments longer before he's gone.

So, the new order of (movie) favorites, best on top:
Prisoner of Azkaban
Order of the Phoenix
Sorcerer's Stone
Goblet of Fire
Chamber of Secrets

EDIT: Oh yeah; this is something I've noticed every time since the first viewing but I want to share it here nonetheless. At Harry's hearing, Fudge ruins the impressive name 'wizengamot' (wizen/wizard+gamut) by calling it very clearly the 'wizenAGmot.' WTF? That's just a nonsense word. I can't believe someone didn't catch that and make him say it over.

Guttering Goblet

2009-07-09T23:06:00.014-04:00

I'm beginning to agree with a fellow fan, Becca, that the HP movies aren't nearly as good as or true to the books as we would like. Azkaban's definitely the best so far. Goblet of Fire's not quite so cumbersome as Chamer of Secrets; Ginny's got more screen time and lines plus there's some good foreshadowing questions about Snape's role as a Death Eater. Still... largely the magic seems to be missing. Which is weird for a movie about magic. One critic on a Half-Blood Prince TV ad called it the "best Potter film yet." I certainly hope that's true. Less than a week now to find out; click here to see me in the Daily Prohpet!

Anway, unnoticed details. This one had the least so far perhaps owing to the number of times I've seen it. P2 actually noticed one of the two; the tumbling gymnast girl in white and red who enters with the Beauxbatons (the rest of whom are in blue uniform) near the beginning of the film looks to be Fleur's little sister. Second was something that isn't really a hidden detail so much as something I noticed about the students' diving form. Having been on a swimming team, I could see that for the second task at the lake, when the three 'main' champions dive in they all have the same terrible form. They flop into the water straight down and their momentum carries their legs past vertical to splash sloppily. A proper dive is more 'out' than 'down' and in an arc. Keeping your feet together allows you to enter the water more cleanly, thus maximizing distance and maintaining some initial forward momentum upon beginning swimming.

Mischief Managed

2009-07-07T22:24:00.016-04:00

Prisoner of Azkaban is one of if not my favorite of the Harry Potter films to date. I believe that this is largely due to the director; Alfonso Cuarón did a bang-up job keeping the story tight and moving at a nice clip while leaving more unsaid than said. While doing some research just now I discovered he also directed A Little Princess AND Children of Men, similarly darkly beautiful, complex and at times madcap stories. Having seen the newer HP films more recently, and now going back to the beginning, I noticed that Prof. Flitwick in the first two movies is quite elderly with a bushy white beard. Post PoA his look has been re-vamped to a much younger Flitwick sporting slicked-down brown hair and no beard. I remembered from OotP that he was younger, but tonight I saw that it was in PoA that the change was made.

Happily, Small Details to Notice return in force with another four noticed for the first time during this latest viewing (at least, I don't remember noticing them before). The detail in this movie is rich, I had my pick of things to grab hold of. First: toward the beginning of the film, hanging up in the Leaky Cauldron are wanted posters with Sirius Black's moving mugshot. We're used to seeing numbers on the cards held in mugshots, but to give it a wizarding feel (apart from the moving picture) runes proceed the numbers. I looked them up but couldn't draw any correlations, leading me to believe they're just there for looks and don't have any particular meaning.

A bit later in the movie, Harry's managed to sneak out of Hogwarts to visit Hogsmead with his friends. They see Cornelius Fudge arrive by sleigh, and Hagrid just happens to be there too. A funny twanging noise and an apology by Hagrid cues viewers in to note that in trying to open the sleigh door for the Minister he's actually pulled it completely off the sleigh.

Later, Harry is in his first private lesson with Lupin on conjuring a patronus. There are all sorts of planets flying about the room as part of those mechanical planetary systems which I don't know the name for. Toward the end of the scene some of the smaller planets can be seen closer up, and (I'm sensitive to this after reading Discworld books) at least two of the small planets are being carried on the backs of elephants.

Finally, in the climax scene where Harry and Hermione return to Hagrid's hut to try and prevent the execution of Buckbeak we hear some dialogue between Dumbledore, Fudge and Hagrid from this new perspective. Dumbledore is obviously trying to stall for time, and in doing so one of the things he insists on is signing the execution order. Fudge agrees, but then Dumbledore explains that it will take some time because he has a very long name. Readers know it is indeed long at: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

Chamber Devoid of Secrets

2009-07-05T22:55:00.008-04:00

Well, not wholly. But I must say the second HP movie does lead the viewer around considerably by the nose, commenting on and explaining away every little thing. It's too bad really, because I do like the story; in many ways it foreshadows big things that don't show up again again until HBP. Makes me want to read the book again. Anyway, I did notice a few new things, one at the beginning and two near the end. There isn't much to discover in the middle because the movie only shows you what it wants you to see. I looked; there's nothing beyond the main action. No subtle details... save for these: At the beginning of the movie, after Harry (Dobby) ruins Uncle Vernon's business meeting, Vernon decides to lock Harry in his room - including putting bars up at the window. A small detail is that he's using a power drill to do it, funny because that's Uncle Vernon's business; drills (Grunnings is the name, I think).

The other two details are at the end of the movie, likely overlooked because I'd been so relieved to be at the end, done being led lockstep through the plot. After Harry indirectly frees Dobby, Lucius Malfoy is so enraged that he puffs up to aim some nasty magic at Harry. Only I never noticed just how nasty until tonight; he winds up to shoot the KILLING CURSE at Harry, getting out the "Avada" before Dobby blasts him off his feet! I don't recall if that's in the book, and certainly isn't the wisest choice of curses considering the effect it had (or didn't have) on Harry the last time, but there it is. Finally, and I don't recall if I noticed this before or not, but it's a detail straight out of the book and one that isn't overtly EXCLAIMED so everyone's sure to get it... When Dumbledore announces that end of the year exams have been canceled in light of recent events, all the students are cheering... but one. Hermione clearly has a look of shocked disappointment in at least one if not two separate shots. Brilliant, subtle nod to the character. I wish that more of the movie had been similarly left to the audience to infer by being shown rather than told outright.

Sorcery

2009-07-04T23:07:00.017-04:00

Some fun things to post about... where to begin?! I guess we'll go reverse chronological: I just received an email from the Machinarium team (I must've been signed up for updates) that you can pre-order the game here and get some neat bonuses doing so, such as music from the game. There's still a bit of a wait as it's slated for an October release, but exciting stuff nonetheless.

I love Independence Day partly because I love fireworks. Though I've been hearing them on and off for the past few days (tonight especially) the best show I got was at Naim's yesterday evening where we set off some that he bought; hand-held sparkler wands and fountains of fire, colored 'solar flares' and one that shot out zooming green sparks! But more on that in a second; I'm getting out of order.

P2 and I are watching all the Harry Potter movies again before HBP is released, starting tonight with Sorcerer's Stone. As often is the case, going back and experiencing something again will sometimes net you previously unnoticed details. I expected maybe one or two tonight but found four things I'd not previously noticed! These usually crop up because your attention is on some other more focal thing in the scene; but the detail is there to be noticed. What I noticed this time: Near the beginning where the Dursleys are at the zoo with Harry, there's an external shot of the Reptile House in which if you watch the people walking by outside there is a group of students dressed in school uniform. This is a bit odd as technically it's Summer holidays and even Muggles shouldn't be in school then. Anyway, I see it as foreshadowing of school life at Hogwarts, and maybe even of Slytherin* House as the uniforms are green and they're right outside the Reptile House.

Second, I recognized the design of the chess pieces in the Wizard's Chess set that Harry and Ron are shown playing with over Christmas break. The design is very clearly that of the 12th century Lewis Chessmen! Many pieces can be seen from the knight to the queen in her chair, down to the geometric, ebenezer pawns. I had done some research on chess piece design since the last time I watched the movie, so that was rather delightful to discover.

The last two are name related, I never before caught that the centaur who defends Harry against Voldy in the Dark Forest is Firenze (Firenez!), addressed by name by Hagrid. This is probably in the book too, but as you never know which named characters will return to play more prominent roles and which will never return, you tend not to remember minor character names. At least I don't. Finally, at the end of the movie when Hagrid gives Harry the album (P2 said it looked like a cigar box X'D) with the photo of his parents, normally you'd focus on the people waving in the photo, but on either side are pennants bearing the letters J and on the other side L (or it could be the other way round..). JP and LP would be a bit obvious, so the single letters standing for James and Lily are a nice, subtle nod to fans. James' name is at least shown earlier in the movie on the Quidditch plaque, but I don't think Lily's name is ever mentioned.

Fun stuff. I'll keep my keen eye trained on the following movies to try and find other things I've previously missed. Having read all the books now there are the larger story arc things you understand now, like where the invisibility cloak came from and the building suspicion and animosity towards Snape. But those aren't quite the same as previously unnoticed details. Speaking of fun stuff I went over to my buddy Naim's the other night for some fun times as usual. Got to try out some new games including Rocket Riot and Worms Armageddon 2. The former was fun, but the latter just great; pure worms mayhem, polished to a high sheen. Worms scream in terror in the face of nearby dynamite, and the explosion sound effect is quite satisfying. Makes me want to get out Open Warfare 2 (DS) and give it a shot. As it were. :P

*Apart from watching the movie, back when I was designing the Hogwarts uniforms in Animal Crossing (see below), I noticed something about the name Slytherin that's not immediately apparent due to its conventional pronunciation. JKR's big on words and names of things, so while Slytherin obviously relates to slithering snakes, it's spelled with a Y, and so can be broken up to read, "sly therin," relating very specifically to qualities of Slytherin House's members, which the Sorting Hat sings about at some point in the books. I think the song is in the first book, I'll track it down later.

Screens

2009-06-26T10:36:00.006-04:00

I'm ready for you, Gulliver! Maybe these crop circles will attract him. :/

The real meaning of "animal crossing:"

Guide to Catching Tarantula/Scorpion

2009-06-25T14:46:00.007-04:00

A little backstory: There are only a handful of ways to get 'hurt' in Animal Crossing. You can fall in a hole via pitfall seed, or get bitten/stung by various insects. The mosquito bite doesn't really affect you apart from interrupting whatever you're doing. Bee stings make your face all puffy and deformed, frightening neighbors. When stung/bitten by a scorpion/tarantula the venom knocks you out cold and you wake up on your doorstep. In order to complete the museum, the player must catch (and donate) every type of bug in the game, including the more dangerous ones. Now, in Wild World I caught all the bugs. With scorpions and tarantulas in that game I just got good at going in, guns blazing and snagging them. If you miss, however, you're toast. In City Folk I was having some trouble doing it the old way, and had heard that you could actually catch them quite easily as long as you walk slowly. This was contrary to what I thought I knew about how the bugs operate. I thought that once they spotted you with the net out they would attack. Turns out this isn't quite right, and it does indeed boil down to walking speed.

Scorpions and Tarantulas have the most complex behavior of any bug in the game. If you frighten them by moving too quickly they will run, and whether or not you have your net out determines whether they run toward or away from you. In either case, once you've startled them it's much more difficult to catch them as either you chase them around until you get bored or they fall into water, or they chase you until they catch you or you manage to catch them (which is quite challenging due to factors like motion, distance and angle). As long as you don't 'panic' or 'jump the gun,' tiptoeing up to them with your net is much easier to execute successfully.

To get you to that key moment of slowly* approaching the bug, I found it helps to walk slow while looking. This may seem obvious but it's not normally how players are used to navigating the map. This will also save some wear and tear on your grass, as a bonus. Scorpions and tarantulas seem to tend to spawn along the middle band of acres, and as while trying to catch the Coelacanth, I'd catch or scare away bugs that weren't the ones I was after to cause new bug spawning and thereby increase the chances one of them would be the one I was after. Also, it's easier to spot stationary scorpions and tarantulas (which seems to be their natural spawn state until disturbed by quickly-moving players) when you approach from the south so that the cylindrical perspective allows you to see more of the ground you're approaching.

*I searched the map at about 1/2 to 1/3rd walking speed, stopped when I spotted the bug, got out the net, then approached even more slowly. They will approach you slowly, so stopping (to be sure your net angle is correct) is okay also. Hope this helps someone; between getting stung and losing chased bugs I missed maybe 7 times before nabbing one (scorpion). Tarantula, prepare for a trip to your new home in the museum (once I find you)!

Cave Story... WHERE IS IT?!

2009-06-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

More Cave Story News & Previews

Stormy Day

2009-06-23T17:58:00.000-04:00

Bah

2009-06-17T14:48:00.005-04:00

So, playing in the manner described in the previous post isn't much fun and sort of destroys the idea of time passing in the game. Plus it transforms play from a fun, occasional diversion into a job that consistently takes up lots of real time. Maybe I'll play in that manner once all else has been done in the game and I have nothing more to shoot for, but for now all I'm going to do is try to be watching the skies on the hour and have my slingshot out and ready at all times. I'm also wearing the spacesuit now, mostly in defiance of Gulliver. But who knows, maybe it'll flag him down. :/

Gulliver >:(

2009-06-16T13:19:00.010-04:00

In Animal Crossing there's a rare visitor named Gulliver who flies across the sky at a random time on a random day in a UFO. That's what makes him so hard to find; when he'll be there is random. I've been playing City Folk fairly consistently for a couple of months now, and have not seen him. This could be punishment for time traveling, or it could just be that because I generally play once a day, all in one chunk, I've just missed him. I want to make more of a concerted effort to find him as he gives you rare items after you help repair his UFO, but I had some unanswered questions about his appearances.

There is no solid info on such matters as occurrences are so rare, but generally most sources seem to agree that: he comes at a random time between 6am and 6pm, possibly within the first 10 minutes of the hour, on a random day during which there are no other special visitors in town, and he can make more than one pass during the day in question.

One YouTube video showed that Gulliver had been shot down on Sunday, meaning that he had to have been in town between 12pm and 6pm because Joan is there earlier. I don't know if the presence of a special visitor negates the possibility of Gulliver visiting at all that day, or just while that visitor is in town. If the former, it would be much easier to narrow down possible times he could be in town. If the latter, much more difficult as he could still potentially arrive on a day when another visitor had been there, but has left. I'm inclined to think it's the latter due to the rarity of encounters.

My best guess strategy to increase my chances of seeing him are as follows. If I assume a special visitor who's left has not negated the possibility of his arrival, on any given day I'd have to play for at least 2 hours real time, time traveling to the beginning of each hour and playing for the first ten minutes, running a circuit around the center of town to maximize my presence across most of his likely flight patterns. If special visitors DO negate his visit even after they've left, my task becomes easier as I only have to follow the above regiment on days when there has been no other visitor. While the rarity makes me think it could be one way, other ways the game operates, allowing you to "play the system" based on knowledge of how it works makes me wonder if it is in fact possible to watch for him on 'more likely' days. Time limitations may decide action for me.

Already though, I've shot down two* balloons today in test-driving the process, and I would think it would increase one's chances of witnessing possible rain, which means increased gyroids as well. In Wild World I played in about the same way I've been playing normally. In that game I saw Gulliver maybe two to three times as often as I was able to shoot him down, which was only 2-3 times. I had in that game 2 merlions and a Mouth of Truth, but my brother may have given me one merlion, I don't recall. I know he had a mermaid too, which would mean he shot Gulliver down only a couple of times as well. The funny thing is I wonder sometimes if my presence triggers such things or not. Either they're happening all the time and I just miss them, or I happen to be there when they do occur, or their occurrence is triggered by my presence. I wish there was more solid info on this. I do know that some of his 'exclusive' items aren't; one of my character's virtual mother sent him a box of chocolates in the mail, supposedly a Gulliver-only item.

*Make that three, netting me the Mario coin I needed, and it did indeed rain later on. All I need to complete the Mario set now is the flooring. The metroid from Gulliver would be nice, as would the mermaid statue. The Manneken Pis would be humorous, and I'm intrigued about the plate armor, but at this rate I may only get one of them... or none. :( Maybe dressing up in his same spaceman garb will attract him; at this point anything could help.

Muramasa Preview & Scribblenauts Vids

2009-06-15T14:30:00.004-04:00

This looks absolutely gorgeous.

It's neat to see Scribblenauts in action.

Golden

2009-06-08T15:17:00.005-04:00

It's funny, playing Animal Crossing this time around I'm focused on different things. Like making a concerted effort to complete the museum, gyroids and K.K. songs. Also, whereas getting the golden watering can was a final activity in Wild World, in City Folk I find myself wanting it sooner. I'm also focused alot on feng shui and gardening, of all things. I think the labyrinth helped get me into flowers, and the realization that they don't need to all be watered every day helped too. I want to start getting more hybrids; I've got some black tulips and blue pansies, and a single black rose, but there are a ton of other hybrids to get for every color of the rainbow, and I want 'em! It's probably that I'm more familiar with how the game works this time around, and more aware of how to make the game work for me.

Anyway, back to getting the golden watering can (which allows for the creation of gold roses), you need to have a perfect town status for 2 weeks straight. Perfect means a certain ratio of trees and flowers in each 'acre,' with few to no weeds or garbage. I'd done it in Wild World, but mostly by trial and error. Educated guesses as to where stuff needed to be. This time I was more analytical abut it, mapping out the 25 acres and counting trees and flowers to get the desired ratio. The acres are not marked out in any way; they're invisible, but have a real effect on things like town status and where certain trees will or will not grow. I started out pacing them out and setting down patterns as a web guide suggested, but it was taking too long and the river got in the way of an accurate measurement every time I ran into it. So I took a screen of the town map and overlayed a checker pattern of the acres in photoshop; much easier to see and tweak:

The borders are slightly indeterminate, but as long as you're within the square it's close enough. After some time spent counting trees in each acre and planting where the acre needed more, I went to ask Pelly for an eval. She said there were too many trees somewhere (or EVERYWHERE) and initially I was worried I'd planted too many. So I went to a spot where I KNEW there were too many trees (because I'd intentionally planted alot earlier) and axed 4-5 that were questionably on the border with another acre, and that did it!

Now, I just have to see if any of the saplings planted today die tomorrow, address that and maintain perfect status to get the golden watering can (and exclusive jacob's ladder flowers)!

Comic Progress

2009-06-04T12:42:00.003-04:00

While Tim was over I showed him the finished comics I've done so far. Until I've got a site up, I prefer this type of critique over say, emailing the strips. I'm sure people I'd email to wouldn't spread them around, but still, once it's out there it's out there, and I want to make sure the infrastructure is there before I start getting too much exposure. The other bonus to a local, in-person showing is I can observe initial reactions and discuss things fairly easily. Tim's a tough customer, well-versed in humor and webcomics, nonetheless at least one comic elicited a snicker, which is often as much as any of the Sunday comics elicit from me. He brought up the question of a single continuous storyline a la Erfworld, for which I do have some ideas kicking around in my head, but honestly my main focus has been the individual strips. Maybe I can combine certain ideas from my punchline bank with an overarching story ark of some consistent characters. I have both elements separately, it's the combining them that may prove challenging... but ultimately more successful? Anyway, discussing it with Tim spurs me on to keep at it; I've been fairly lax lately, I need to get myself back in gear. I think a site will help, but like I said I want to make sure It's polished enough to debut.

More Stuff

2009-06-02T23:41:00.014-04:00

Had a nice visit with Tim, caught up, played some local Brawl; good times.

Now that I've got the PS3 I should probably watch Sony's keynote as well, but I did find out about Trico's official title, The Last Guardian, and a movie:

Update: The trailer doesn't explain much; apparently a giant gryphon-like creature befriends a boy and they work together to achieve whatever goals. Also: the crunching of barrels by said gryphon appears to factor somehow into gameplay. :| The armored sentries are as creepy as ever. This team has got an uncanny ability to give realistic movement to everything, making things seem truly alive; it works to elicit either fear or wonder, depending on the creature.

Also: apparently they went with PixelJunk: Shooter. Lame name, but I'll still get the game. Also on the radar: Endless Ocean 2, Bit.Trip Core, Gravity Crash, LEGO Harry Potter, and Prof. Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Nintendo Press Conference!

2009-06-02T13:29:00.011-04:00

WOOOOOOOO!!!! For awhile there I was like, yeah, yeah. I expected that, and that. Yawn. They're leaving us core gamers out in the cold! BUT THEN - Super Mario Galaxy 2 hit and all that was blown wide open. And THEN they showed the new Metroid: Other M by Team Ninja, and even I, who am not much of a Metroid fan, was fairly intrigued!

Reggie hit M$'s waggle comment right back at them in the Wii Motion Plus/Wii Sports Resort live demo, saying something along the lines of 'anything is possible in a video.' Wii Motion Plus looks amazing. There were some third party games talked about, but for the moment I've gotta just put up a quick list of all the games I saw that I was interested in (because I'm leaving to pick up Tim in a bit). In order of appearance, bold are most interesting to me personally:

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers
Wii Sports Resort
Super Mario RPG 3: Bowser's Inside Story
Zelda: Spirit Tracks (I'll see how good a rating this one gets)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (working title?)
Metroid: Other M

And some other DSi stuff that makes me wish I had a DSi; animation software and a WarioWare game that lets you create microgames. I'm a little miffed how they're pushing new hardware with DSi... I can't spend money on one right now. Also: a bit of a sad thing, got a message on my Wii this morning that submissions to the Brawl content vault will end at the end of this month. We can continue to share P2P, but submitting fresh stuff for mass dispersal will come to an end.

Gamesx4

2009-05-28T15:55:00.006-04:00

A glutton for punishment, I'm playing four games atm: City Folk (the season's just beginning to change where there are new bugs and fish to catch), Oracle of Ages, Rhythm Heaven and now, Portal. I just spent some time diving into it; very enjoyable. I'm not usually a huge fan of FPSs, but this game is more of a puzzle game with an FPS control scheme; the first person perspective enhances the feeling that you're there. So far I'm loving the atmosphere and puzzles. It's got a forgiving learning curve (now that I'm quicksaving). I've just gotten past 16, the first level with the robotic sentry guns. They're quite endearing when they aren't firing at me! As the game says, now I'm cooking with portals. :)

Edit: Also, my designs are catching on fast in Piscia! About half the town is wearing them; mostly Griffindor, followed by Ravenclaw and one Slytherin. No Hufflepuffs yet.

Gryffindor!

2009-05-21T12:11:00.008-04:00

Woo! You may have noticed the Tailor shop screen near the end of yesterday's post (I've since moved it to this post). In it you can see the four different house uniforms for the Hogwarts set I created.

They looked great on me, but I really wanted to see the residents start to wear them. Sure enough, today Sally was the first to wear one, and for a house that matches her personality; Gryffindor!

Some animals don't wear sleeves, which is fine I guess, as it looks just as good as a sleeveless vest. I created the designs in layers, step by step. First, I acquired the shirt cloth design, and then "created" a Pro design overtop of that, which basically lets you edit Pro designs. I then changed the color palette to something that had all the house colors in it, and tweaked the shirt's colors accordingly. Next I added a full tie, followed by a sweater with house emblem. I decided against having a robe as there were already several layers and I didn't want to cover up any more details. I could still add robes if I change my mind... Looking at it on Sally though, you don't want to get too many small details or they just get lost; gotta keep things large to some extent.

Also: I put out two black tulips today (in hopes of breeding more) in the center of my labyrinth, and saw a peacock butterfly while playing one of my alts! Peacocks only will come to the hybridized flowers, so they're somewhat rare, somewhat difficult to obtain. Alas! I went to swap out my equipment for a net and all I had were balloons! As I suspected, the butterfly was gone after I'd gone to purchase a net, leaving me kicking myself for not having a spare lying around. Happily, I went back on my main and fairly soon found another, which I promptly caught. :)

And Now...

2009-05-20T21:42:00.005-04:00

The long-overdue ACCF screens post!

And there's more where that came from! X'D

Games in the Hopper

2009-05-13T13:29:00.011-04:00

Naim's query about games coming out for the Wii got me thinking of all the games currently on my radar. Games that are out NOW that I don't have the time/money for (atm):

Wii: Klonoa
Wii: Bit.Trip Beat
NDS: Korg DS-10
NDS: Chrono Trigger
PS3: fl0wer

Games coming in the not-too-distant future:

NDS: Mario & Luigi RPG 3
Wii: Cave Story
Wii: Super Meat Boy
NDS: The Legendary Starfy
PC: Machinarium

Announced games coming... eventually:

Wii: A Boy and his Blob
Wii: Zelda Wii
PS3: Ico Team Project
PS3: Pixel Junk 1-4
NDS: Ninokuni

Rhythm Heaven!

2009-05-06T19:28:00.004-04:00

Woohoo! P2 knows what I like when it comes to gifts (a ranked wishlist helps)! She got me Rhythm Heaven which I'd had my eye on ever since the first, Japan-only GBA version came out over there. My interest in the game was solidified upon playing the demo a week or so back. If you've got a Wii and a DS you can download it (and demos of other DS games) from the Nintendo Channel - how convenient! Can't wait to sit down and sink my teeth into the full game. I'll let you know more once I have; my initial impressions from the demo were that it's quite quirky and charming, and that while it appears to be a rhythm game on the surface, it's really about timing; a core element in more traditional platforming games. It's almost as though the devs took the "good timing" element from a platformer and fashioned a rhythm game around it. Looking forward to it.

Games!

2009-04-28T17:43:00.004-04:00

I just found out that Super Meat Boy (what appears to be a sequel to the original) is coming to WiiWare! Woo! I played just enough of the original to know that it's some fun, challenging platforming in the vein of N. Cave Story appears to be coming soon according to the devs' blog, though recently posted video also seems to show that it's not quite ready yet. :/ Konami's coming out with an interesting title on the 5th called Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times. It looks like a cross between Animal Crossing and Harry Potter. Intriguing.

Creative Editing

2009-04-27T17:39:00.010-04:00

The other residents pretend not to notice, but our dear beloved mayor, Tortimer was in dire need of a bath. As a concerned citizen, the duty fell to me. When I suggested a nearby pond he nearly trampled me in an attempt to run back to Town Hall. So, I had to gently (but firmly) guide him to a more controlled location.

He dug his heels in for much of the trip...

But finally, we arrived.

He tried shouting...

And then thinly-veiled threats...

But eventually resigned himself to his impending bath in stony silence.

He looked up at me, a broken, but clean old tortise.

It's for your own good, Tortimer... and the greater good of the town. :'|

O Frabjous Day!

2009-04-23T11:25:00.003-04:00

You never know what a day will bring in Animal Crossing. Today I hit the motherload, none of it from Nook. Started off catching two new fish for the museum:

I got a new piece of furniture from Wisp, and another genuine painting from Redd:

To top it all off, I was right in tune with Serena today to finally get a golden axe!

Also, my labyrinth is getting worn enough where I decided to remove the pattern. The wearing is of yet a bit uneven; I'll have to keep walking on it.

Little Moments

2009-04-22T22:26:00.005-04:00

It's all the little moments in Animal Crossing that, when added together make the experience enjoyable.

If a person were to say this to you it would be so rude! But when a sincerely innocent little mummy dog says it... it's just laughable.

Chevre was the first neighbor I met playing an Animal Crossing game... and also the first to move away after I'd tried time traveling. :(

As in real life, annoyances with people soon disappear once you get to know a little more about them.

A fellow collector:

What game is this again?

Visiting!

2009-04-20T00:14:00.005-04:00

Huzzah! Naim now has ACCF also, which means we can visit each others' towns, meet residents, get new stuff, see room layouts and generally bum around - virtually!

Naim first visited Piscia, and later I checked out Happyton:

Upon return to Piscia I discovered I'm on friendly enough terms with Brewster to discuss gyroids:

And I think I may re-name Reaper and Scythe to Fisher and Cane Pole... fishing for the Triforce!

Nice Day

2009-04-18T23:17:00.004-04:00

We finally had some nice, Spring weather today and took full advantage of it. P2 and I headed out to our local park to walk around and scope out the flora and fauna. I brought along a camera, and will upload photos later. For animal life we heard frogs, saw two turtles sunning on a log, a mallard, a goose, and a snake. Later in the afternoon we got some things done around the house; spring cleaning types of things. We were seriously getting cabin fever; it was good to get outside in the sunshine and fresh air. For dinner we met up with P2's sister's family at Ruby Tuesday. I got a very delicious dinner of salmon and shrimp with this sweet and spicy glaze... quite tasty. :9

Museum Fun

2009-04-17T17:01:00.002-04:00

Feng Shui

2009-04-16T09:43:00.005-04:00

Just when I was beginning to doubt the effectiveness of my (albeit partially implemented) Feng Shui furniture arrangement, I find a Festive Hat, Silver Net and Starman all in one day. Maybe it is working! Now I just need to keep ordering from Nook and fill not just my house but my alts' as well. I also got sort of a neat pattern from Wendel, but I don't think that's related. Also: today's the day (finally!) when Redd's store is back in stock, and now that I have an invite I can go shopping there too. Woo!

Update: Shot down a SECOND Mario-themed furniture, AND Redd's painting was genuine, too. Must get MORE Feng Shui goodness!

Awesome

2009-04-15T12:43:00.003-04:00

Ah, it's unexpected LOL dialogue like this that makes me love Animal Crossing:

But also the ability to shape your town to some extent, including constellations in the night sky. Below is one of my favorites so far; actually comprised of two constellations, the Archer and his Bow:

Wisp!

2009-04-10T11:41:00.003-04:00

True to his word, Wisp removed every last weed from town.

Yes indeed! Though Piscia is still a work in progress. The labyrinth pattern has been set out as you can see, I'm still undecided as to what to do specially with the border areas. Trees provide a real barrier but tend to block the view of the overall design. Pitfall seeds discourage players from walking on the borders, but don't look that great. I'd love to plant four-leafed clover along the borders, but they're somewhat hard to come by. From all my hours (years) of TTing I came up with maybe 7-10 four-leafed clovers. Flowers are a relatively inexpensive option, and they will keep the borders from getting worn down, though they require upkeep and can die. Still, I could do some interesting color-coordination with flowers... I'll have to think more on it.

City Folk

2009-04-09T16:05:00.007-04:00

I decided that it would be better to waste a little time upfront than alot of time spread out, so to that end I hit time traveling pretty hard yesterday and today. I feel like a pilot in that BSG episode where they have to jump through the dense star clusters to get the fleet to the algae planet. How many more jumps? You can see the strain in my eyes. Anyway, I had a set number of "jumps" to complete, or I told myself if I found Wisp's lamp I'd stop. About 5 jumps short of my goal I found the lamp and stopped time traveling. Tonight I'm going to find that ghost and have him remove all the weeds from Piscia. It's pretty bad.

But I'm done TTing now for a good long time, and sitting on a comfortable bank account for my trouble. I could have done it faster if I hadn't gone into Able Sisters' and Nook's each day looking for new items. I'm glad I did though, because I did encounter several new things. The paths between my house, Nook's and the Tailor have been worn down a fair amount, giving me inspiration to stick with it for the other roads in town and the labyrinth. Next up I'm going to beef up the Feng Shui in all my houses, and then we'll see what I find to buy (hopefully good, rarer stuff more often).

Revised Labyrinth

2009-04-07T16:57:00.007-04:00

ACCF arrived in the mail late yesterday, and today I got to revisit my town in-depth. I scouted out paths for roads, and set down pattern guides until paths are actually worn in enough to see without them. I also scouted out the two locations I'd had in my head for the labyrinth, and to my dismay both were dotted with a couple of future home sites, meaning that neighbors could move in on the land at any time. Well, I don't want a house appearing atop my labyrinth, so the next-best largest swath of land is a cliff plateau just south of the eastern-most site. Anyway, my previous labyrinth design won't work there as the space is roughly triangular rather than square. I measured out the land and came up with a several possibilities, my favorite being below:

Red lines denote cliff faces or otherwise immovable boundaries. Dark gray lines are the grass (perhaps with flowers or pitfall seeds buried therein), medium gray are half squares where the cliff (and subsequent labyrinth wall) is rounded, and the halftone pattern beneath will be dirt within the labyrinth. A dirt path. I like how this design fits the land space; it still doubles back on itself in a couple of spots, and the center is a nice clean spiral.

Labyrinth Pattern

2009-04-06T09:58:00.003-04:00

This is about the smallest labyrinth I could make while still making it interesting and retaining qualities of other traditional labyrinths:

Animal Tracks

2009-04-03T11:35:00.006-04:00

I was reading up on ACCF last night, started out perusing patterns, then fell into a discussion about Feng Shui (which I hadn't much paid attention to in ACWW, but now has my complete attention as it affects things like rare furniture and bells), and finally one about a potential bug in the game. Apparently ACCF features a new system unofficially deemed Animal Tracks by the devs whereby an actual path will be worn down through grass that's traveled on often. A very interesting notion; I'd often wished that I could change the static pattern of grass and dirt in my ACWW town.

The problem arises when the "wearing" is compounded via multiple characters or multiple loads on the same day. Grass can be worn many times more than what the devs originally intended via constant play in this way, leading to entire towns of dirt. No grass. I've seen screens; it isn't pretty. And looking at my own screens I actually notice some wear already just from the four characters I started while renting the game. I'm going to keep their houses for the Feng Shui bonus, but not play them. Anyway, it is manageable, and grass does grow back eventually. I think it's an interesting system despite the potential for ruin. As long as you're aware of it as I now am, and have a strategy for management it's really no problem, and actually somewhat neat.

This feature isn't in the manual however, so you can imagine people's unpleasant surprise who after a couple of weeks of: having multiple players loading multiple times per day, running all across town during winter, the harshest season on grass wear, suddenly find their town has little-to-no grass left. A funny comment on the bug said it was realistic desertification. Personally, I was already planning on having roads, to manage this I just need to run only on roads (if you're catching bugs you're used to not running everywhere anyway) and only play once a day, which is fine.

Now that I know it isn't a fatal flaw in the game as some angry alarmists were making it out to be, I'm actually pretty excited to grow grass in areas that are currently dirt, make real roads without the use of patterns, and even a labyrinth or two! If I got really inspired I could make a geoglyph, but I'm afraid it wouldn't really be visible to anyone...

Comic Progress

2009-04-02T13:10:00.002-04:00

Almost forgot I wanted to post about this; I've been showing P2 my comic progress, sketches and finished comics. The most recent of these actually elicited laughter! And laughter at about the level of any good Sunday comic strip, too. This was very heartening, as I felt validated that my sense of humor isn't too far out there and that I have the ability to translate it successfully into the visual medium. She could relate to both the setting and the situation the characters were in, and enjoyed the drawings too. That's all I can ask for. At some point here I'll get a website up and start posting with regularity. That will also help keep me on task with producing when it gets tougher.

Digital Distro, Part 2

2009-04-02T12:16:00.004-04:00

So, in an earlier post I mentioned going to dl a pokémon for Pearl, and renting ACCF to get the exclusive St. Patty's day hat. Nintendo is very shrewd for offering such things. In both cases the free content brought renewed interest in the games. In the case of Pearl I've since used Regi (lvl 100) to punch through much of the remainder of the game. It's almost like cheating... almost. Up until obtaining the final gym badge he didn't listen to me most of the time. X'D He hardly gets a scratch from individual battles, and with him at the fore of my team I can charge through entire areas and only have him get down to maybe half HP. Another nice bonus is because he's level 100 (apparently max level), any and all exp gained via the Exp Share item goes directly to the poke holding it. All the gain, none of the pain. It's really rather unbalanced, but as it's in my favor I love it. I don't have the time that some of these school kids have to while away in endless battles. I was right around 40 hours upon capturing Palkia, and after having Regi, I'd say the majority of that is exploration, re-tracing my steps and running from pointless battles.

In the case of ACCF, it got me off my staunch "I won't buy it until a friend has it" horse to at least rent it and take a gander. Well, that's all I needed. My interest was renewed, I saw what the game is all about and foresaw some new goals for myself. These are: completing some item sets like the chess furniture set (without the ACWW catalog transfer this would be too staggering to attempt, and the online auction house will help too), customizing a new town in a really neat way (I'd like to have thick forests you can get lost in, as well as roads to follow between major buildings), and of course sharing funny moments here, which I like to do and is made so much easier and better via the built in screenshot feature. So today I caved, and using some revenue from Amazon re-sales (as per usual) got it without any out-of-pocket expense. At least waiting this long I saved myself about $20 from it's original $50 price tag. I'm actually surprised at how quickly the price has gone down. I don't think I'd have gotten it if it was much over $30.

Torani Syrup

2009-03-28T17:03:00.005-04:00

I found exactly what I'd been looking for for butterbeer today; a butterscotch flavored syrup that's not so thick in consistency (like the Smuckers syrup is), making it easier to mix without flattening the soda. The brand is Torani; I came close to buying some, but I couldn't quite bring myself to spend the $10 for a bottle. I would like to get some eventually, maybe if I can find it a tad cheaper. They also make this and this, either of which could possibly be used in making pumpkin juice... Hmm!

Focus-pocus!

2009-03-27T17:23:00.010-04:00

I got up early today, planning to make the most of the day and get alot done. As it turned out I found it incredibly, unusually difficult to focus on much of anything (it was like encountering a physical wall), probably owing to multiple factors. One is the week I've had, chopped up with no time dedicated to artwork. Another is probably the springtime weather making me antsy to be stuck indoors (it's not a sunny day by any stretch, but there's a definite perceptible change in the amount of light). Still another, partially related to the first is that my heart really isn't in the tasks I'm trying to finish, making it all the more difficult to keep at them. Maybe tonight I can try to take another crack at them. :( I guess I did get Perelandra finished, it had more of an elaborate subterranean segment than I'd remembered. It's funny how you pick up on different things after you've read a book multiple times.

Strange Maps

2009-03-26T09:58:00.005-04:00

He loved maps, and in his hall there hung a large one of the Country Round with all his favourite walks marked on it in red ink.

I feel a need to expand my links to include other items of interest beyond just people I know. Maybe I'll start a new section...

The Whew Face

2009-03-25T12:44:00.010-04:00

-o- Jury duty was... slightly stressful, but ended up happily enough. I left at quarter to seven this morning, in the dark, in the pouring rain to drive to the city. Had it not been for GPS it would have been more stressful, thankfully I got there in one piece. Lots of us waited around in a room full of chairs and some monitors. It was something between waiting for an airplane and waiting for the dentist, and reminded me of The Lottery how people's names were being called, chosen at random. Would the next name be mine?

There were eight trials that needed jurors before the day was done, mine was the second to last name called in the last group. As those who weren't called left, I settled back into Perelandra, having made it about a third of the way through from the time I arrived until they told the last of us around 11:30 that they'd selected all the jurors they needed and we could go too. Hallelujah! Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing my civic duty, but it's also a relief to get back to normality.

Coming home, I stopped into Einstein Bros. Bagels for a bagel. Lately a favorite combo is a salt bagel with sun-dried tomato basil spread. Now, you'd think for being a BAGEL place it wouldn't be that hard to get a bagel right. You can imagine my surprise then when on taking a few bites, expecting a nice, mild flavor I found it instead rather bite-y and... spicy?! The jalapeño spread looks very similar to the tomato spread, but with green chunks of pepper, hence, the heat! I like spicy stuff, but that's not the flavor I was expecting or planning on. They apologetically replaced it with what I'd originally asked for... sort of. This time I got a sesame seed bagel instead of salt. Ah well, that one I ate anyway as the flavors were more compatible. I think I prefer the bagels at Panera; their salt bagel's got the salt baked into the crust somehow, as opposed to Einstein Bros.' where it's stuck on top like a pretzel.

Batty

2009-03-23T16:53:00.004-04:00

In response to Naim's post.

One Down...

2009-03-23T12:23:00.003-04:00

Three to go. The dentist wasn't that bad, I just had to grin and bear it, as it were. Still, I sometimes think that could be what Hell is like; endless poking and scraping with those cruel-looking metal instruments. :X Anyway. I made up for the discomfort with a sunny walk down the block to Panera for a yummy bagel and listening to NPR on the drive home. Now I'll probably dive into photographing and cataloging my collectibles before they're packed away in storage. It's not so much an unpleasant task, but it takes a long time; there's alot to go through.

The Flat Face

2009-03-22T22:54:00.005-04:00

-______________- This week entails dentistry, jury duty, cataloging of hundreds of collectibles, applications, in short - unpleasant stuff that needs to be done nonetheless.

Also: BSG is over?! I had thought there were going to be 22 eps, but with Friday's surprise double feature I see now that it's over.* There were a few twists - I was expecting something more climactic, but for the most part it all did make sense in the end. Further discussion in comments if you wish.

*Technically, they're still going to have a movie about the cylons' plan, aptly titled: The Plan, plus the new series Caprica (which I'm not very interested in at this point I must say).

Digital Distribution

2009-03-21T16:38:00.009-04:00

The iTunes store has mucked up Legend of the Seeker eps, replacing Home with Hartland (incorrectly titled Home) rather than uploading the new Hartland (as Hartland) and Conversion. Battlestar on the other hand has TWO new episodes where I only expected to see one; Daybreak parts 2 AND 3!? So those I'm dling now as I write this.

On the gaming front, this looks interesting, and I still need to get fl0wer, and save up for Rhythm Heaven. Oh, I rented City Folk also; it's a little more than just Animal Forest + Wild World, with some new items, fish and bugs seeming to respawn a little faster, slightly faster run speed, more neighbors, 4 different player houses per town (for a possible 4 mansions to customize), and the titular city with its high-end additional play experiences. I did end up naming my town Piscia, and I moved a copy of my character from Wild World; it's very nice not needing to worry about building up stock again; I can just focus on buying the new items. I took a few screens, I'll see about getting them up later. My reason for renting was to get an exclusive virtual gift; a green leprechaun hat for St. Patty's day. Today's also the last day to get a free level 100 pokémon from Toys R Us. You don't even have to go into the store; just park near the R Zone and the signal is strong enough to permeate; at least that was my experience.

Dreams

2009-03-17T09:58:00.005-04:00

I had some interesting ones last night involving the theft of some powerful magical artifact/genie/fairy which allowed me to gain many and varied powers, such as becoming an armored giant, slinging around like spider man, and otherwise escaping the bonds of normal humanity. I betrayed my king, driving his armies back to the castle and laying siege to it. The manner of the siege was somewhat odd, apparently a single catapult that hurled blocks of yellow-orange semi-transparent material. The king was wearing some kind of crustacean suit, apparently as imposed by me as part of the seige. They managed to destroy a shipment of the blocks and the catapult, and the king escaped his suit (an enchanted form?), at which point my remote consciousness fled back to my secret hideout in the company of the fairy/genie. Wild stuff... o3o

Productivity

2009-03-12T23:13:00.005-04:00

Hooray! My revised weekly schedule seems to be the most attainable yet; I reached today's quota of finishing 2 strips, and hope to continue the trend. Naim's getting into Eve Online, and while my interest is certainly peaked I just don't have the time or money to put into it. I can't afford either. There needs to be some kind of sped-up, low-commitment MMORPG where the leveling turnover is fast. Not much money making incentive for devs I suppose, but much more appealing to people like me. I guess that's what traditional games are. :/ Also: I think some sort of karma system would be interesting to incorporate into an MMORPG. Instead of leveling, when you die you re-incarnate based on your actions - like in Hinduism. Why hasn't this been implemented yet?

A Boy and his Blog

2009-03-08T22:43:00.007-04:00

Update: here's a couple of pages from the NP article, showing more detail.

Karateka

2009-03-07T00:28:00.004-05:00

Karateka stage lyrics from Rhythm Tengoku:

Hey baby, how's it going?
This beat is non-stop.
Hey baby, listen to my phrase,
I can give you the sense of rhythm.
Oh yeah!
Hey baby, how's it going?
This beat is non-stop.
Hey baby, listen to my phrase,
I can give you the sense of rhythm.
Awake baby; trust me!
This beat is non-stop.
You groove in your soul!
Oh yeah!
This beat you are throwing up well.
Hey baby, hold onto your ambition.
Hey!
Oh yeah!

¬~¬

2009-03-06T14:27:00.006-05:00

Ugh... I don't know what's wrong with me atm. Perhaps this is a side-effect from sticking to such a strict creative schedule; I just don't feel like doing anything at the moment. NOTHING. I just want to sit, or take a nap, or mindlessly snack. :/ I wish I had somewhere to go to swim. I've been finishing comics for the past few days this week; it takes alot of time to make them look just right. So much so that I've had to compress my sketching time into a single day to have enough time to finish a week's worth. It's good though, I need to remember what a big change this is for me and not get discouraged; I'm actually making progress and producing, which feels great.

My Club Nintendo-exclusive hanafuda cards arrived in the mail today - smaller than I was imagining - as with many Japanese products I suppose. I'm curious to see the cards, but also hesitant to break the box seal and open them. :X The latest Nintendo Power also came in the mail today, featuring lots of interesting stuff (for as little interest in anything I can muster at the moment): info on a promising-looking A Boy and His Blob remake for Wii, multi-page Rhythm Heaven blowout of info, and an interview with Yasunori Mitsuda! Now if I could just muster up the gumption to read it... maybe later. :(

Diversions

2009-03-04T16:31:00.017-05:00

Wanted to post about three things: The Dark Crystal, Legend of the Seeker and Butter Beer. For Christmas I got a Jim Henson's fantasy film three pack containing The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and Mirror Mask. I'd never seen any of them but I'd heard about them. They looked intriguing, and with talent like Jim Henson and Frank Oz, I was willing to see what they're all about. We finally cracked open the set last night and watched Dark Crystal (well, I watched it, P2 fell asleep for most of it). What a cool movie! It's like one part Middle Earth, one part Dagobah, one part Tatooine and one part Fraggle Rock! Great, coherent little other-worldly fairy tale. I also noted some visual similarities with Miyazaki's Nausicaa. Coincidence? Now I want to see the others in the set too...

Legend of the Seeker. Where to begin. If you haven't heard, this is a new-ish TV series based on the Sword of Truth books by TG. SoT holds kind of an odd place in my heart as it is... It's very dark, often not giving equal treatment to lighter themes, and as the series progresses it sort of loses its initial steam and becomes very preachy and tiresome. One night on TV I happened upon an episode and realized very quickly that the key descriptor for the show was "based on" the books. I wasn't really wanting to get into it because, like so many people who are fans of books, you imagine it one way in your mind and to see it a different way can be saddening. Nonetheless, my Dad brought the series up some weeks later; he'd stumbled upon it also and had the interest to watch all the episodes online (which you can do on the official site). Having shared my concerns with him (namely the inconsistencies with the books and the caliber of the actors), he said that they get better as the series progresses and to give them a shot. So, reluctantly I did. The first few episodes are pretty generic and bland, with barely passable writing and acting. Once you get past the first few however, they do actually improve as (I agree with Dad) the actors seem to get more comfortable in their roles, more is shown than told, and more difficult moral issues are addressed.

So, here's my bottom line on the show; if you can handle various elements from SoT being tossed around and re-sorted for convenience sake, give the show a shot. The later episodes are indeed better than the first few (which could potentially turn off many viewers). It would be nice if, as on BSG, they had the occasional two-part episode as each one so far is wrapped up fairly neatly by the end without much carry-over. One big positive change that I like alot is that Zedd is given equal footing with Richard and Kahlan as a companion on their journey. As one of my favorite characters in the book, and well-played on the show, this is a very good thing. Kahlan is quite beautiful as in the books, however she's much less sure of herself and her gift is used much less often in favor of knife fighting, which I think is a little less interesting than it could be. Finally, I always pictured someone of David Hasselhoff's build as Richard, whereas the TV version is younger and of smaller stature. I guess in the new group of three, a younger, more boyish Richard plays off both Zedd and Kahlan better.

And, last but not least BUTTER BEER! Naim and I had a discussion awhile back as to what it is, and how one could go about making some. Naim had more of a buttery, alcoholic interpretation whereas mine was more of a butterscotch, soda interpretation. Root Beer, Birch Beer, and Ginger Ale for instance, while having alcohol in their names aren't actually alcoholic. Naim says (and I don't disagree) that you could add a small amount of vodka to Butter Beer to give it that 'warming' sensation and make it possible for house elves, if not humans, to get drunk off the stuff. I don't think alcohol is absolutely necessary, especially when producing a recipe for fans (many of whom) may be under the legal drinking age. So, about a week ago while shopping for groceries I procured (virgin) Butter Beer's three hypothetical ingredients: Butterscotch syrup, Club soda and Cream soda. At home, after some experimentation with various amounts I hit upon a fairly good-tasting mixture. What follows is my recipe for Butter Beer:

Club soda
Cream soda
butterscotch syrup topping (like Smucker's, the squeeze bottle makes measuring neat and easy)

Soda should be mixed cold, but without ice. Quantities are as follows: 1/2 heaping* teaspoon of butterscotch syrup for every 200ml of (total) soda. Soda mixture is equal: one part Club to one part Cream. Measure out half the Club soda in a large measuring glass, then add the butterscotch syrup. Mix vigorously and well for a few seconds (a small electric hand mixer works nicely), then add the second half of the Club soda, followed by the full amount of Cream soda. Serve immediately.

*Some of the syrup invariably sticks to the measuring spoon.

This method produces a nice, lightly carbonated, butterscotch-flavored drink of a pleasant golden color, complete with 'dregs' composed of unmixed butterscotch. The only trouble is it must be served cold (unlike the books' Butter Beer which can also be served warm). Warm soda goes flat fast. Otherwise, it's a quite excellent Butter Beer!

Animation!

2009-03-03T14:09:00.001-05:00

Caught this lovely little animation on TV last night; who cares that it's an ad for Fritos; it's beautiful!

The YEAH! Face

2009-02-24T20:16:00.006-05:00

>D So, quite contrary to my plan and my procrastinating nature I actually began my comic work today, spending the majority of the day coming up with new ideas and sketching out ideas into strips. I have a preliminary schedule of sorts which dictates a minimum of ideas and work to be done on them each day of the workweek. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to keep up with it, based on the pace at which I've been generating ideas and today's drawing. Generating ideas isn't so much the issue; it's learning to take the extra moment to fully consider a novel of funny idea whenever it pops into your head and then either develop it then and there into something viable for a strip or simply record the basic idea for later development. I have both a consistent cast of characters and standalone ideas, and my hope is to be able to use them both, switching from one to the other as ideas necessitate. My style will have to be the bridge, and that I'm developing also. Today I found myself occasionally just guiding my hand to produce the picture in my mind with little to no effort. This was very heartening as it means I still have those mental pathways intact though they've been out of use for several years. Probably the last time I felt that flow from mind to hand without much conscious interference was while painting in my Watercolor class, and before that near the end of my Drawing I class. Years ago. But apparently I've still got it, and it feels great to experience it again.

For Lent

2009-02-24T00:00:00.006-05:00

This is mainly put here for me to remind myself, but for Lent I'm giving up:

- some somewhat destructive habits
- about a third of my daily portions of food (which have gotten to be too much)

AND taking on:

- regular exercise and reading
- the day-to-day tasks, routine and lifestyle of a full time, working cartoonist

Seems a bit ironic, I know - to be beginning a journey as a comic artist at a time of somber reflection, but one thing about me I've found out is that I NEED deadlines, so this is perfect timing for me to begin. I've already been busy lately (past couple of months) laying the groundwork for this moment. Now, all that's really left is to plunge in and begin.

Fat Tuesday

2009-02-23T23:25:00.013-05:00

I wonder how many people realize that Mardi Gras celebrations (French for Shrove Tuesday) spring directly out of Christian traditions and observances. Fat Tuesday (as it's also called) is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I'm sure you've heard about "giving something up for Lent," the idea nowadays being that beyond a traditional fast from certain foods, we can give up other luxuries in our daily lives, or even take something on, for Lent (and beyond). For Christians it's a little like a New Year's resolution; the purpose is to examine our everyday lives, but with the specific focus of personal preparation to follow Jesus' path to the cross (and beyond) during the next forty or so days. That's why it's called Fat Tuesday, because after that the fasting begins. Personally, I'm going to both take on and give up things; it's a great deadline for me to begin changing things that I do too much of or don't do enough of. It's not about me trying to do something to earn God's love, rather it's about making changes in my life that put me more in line with God's loving will for my life, health and happiness - and to better show the wonders of that same love to others, through me.

Scribblenauts

2009-02-22T22:54:00.011-05:00

Another game has shown up on my games radar; this one called Scribblenauts for DS. In it you write words (apparently ANY words, though I'm sure there are some limits) to obtain that item or items to help you achieve the goal of the level. There are many different levels, but the goal is always to collect a star. Apparently you're rewarded for your solutions based on a "par" system of how many objects it should take to complete the level, more elegant solutions being "better," and providing some framework within which to let your imagination run wild. I'm intrigued by the premise; how imagination is used as the key element to gameplay. It will be interesting to see how many different kinds of objects the devs can put in which ultimately the player is allowed to conjure up. Reminds me of a couple of different non-related things; oddly enough a little electronic game called 20Q where through asking 20 questions the game can usually pinpoint (with freakish accuracy) exactly what object you're thinking of. There must be a list in there somewhere that the game is using. Secondly, old text based games have you input things like "get flask" and "get scroll," requiring the player use her mind and imagination to dream up which certain objects (represented by only a word) could possibly be obtained and how they could be used to advance. Interesting stuff; I'm going to keep an eye on this one.

The Tired Face

2009-02-19T00:45:00.003-05:00

=_= Ugh... I've been really tired lately. At first I thought it may be the mental rigor I've been putting myself through now that I have some direction for myself. That's probably part of it. I've been thinking alot lately - I mean, even for me who likes to spend time in my own head - I've been letting my mind run free, and trying to keep up with it is tiring. It's good though, I'm moving forward. I bought a domain today (two actually, one more obscure and witty, the other more standard and easily remembered). Once I get a site designed, I'll purchase hosting from the host I've selected and things can really begin. This tiredness though; I think it may be sleep related partially as well. While I have been getting enough sleep (enough to remember vivid dreams* quite regularly) I have been going to bed at irregular hours and waking up at regular ones, equaling irregular periods of sleep each night. I need to be going to bed right around midnight or shortly before. I'm already past that tonight. :/

*last night's featured me as some kind of heir to a besieged castle, escaping by swimming to a distant island where an elfin Gwyneth Paltrow in a red dress and wind-swept hair promised her aid...

Lord of the Rings Dance!

2009-02-16T15:29:00.018-05:00

P2 and I went to see Lord of the Dance yesterday. She'd seen it before, but it was my first time. Beyond some vague idea of the style of dance, I really had no idea what to expect. I was then pleasantly surprised at the variety of moods and degree to which a narrative was conveyed just through the various dancers, choreography, costumes, lighting and music used. I liked it alot! It also surprised me how after awhile, the dancers pausing or standing actually looked novel in contrast to their constant legwork motion the rest of the time. My favorite segments were those with the female dancers with their (I'm guessing) naturally long hair that flowed around them as their lower bodies carried then on unseen currents of movement. At times it felt like watching fairies dance from some distant, long-forgotten age or world. I also liked the segments using dance to convey the channeling of power, like at the beginning with the torches or near the end where the usurper and his minions overwhelm the titular Lord of the Dance.

On the gaming front, I need to look at release dates for some that are on my radar and start budgeting for them. I can at least list them (you know how I love a good list!) in guesstimated order of release:

Cave Story
Rhythm Heaven
Mario & Luigi RPG 3
Machinarium
Klonoa

Oh yeah, one more thing I wanted to write about; No Exit was the episode explaining and answering alot of the uproarious questions raised in Sometimes a Great Notion. I knew the answers would have to come out one way or another, but I was pleasantly surprised at the degree to which most of it was explained in a single episode (there are still a few questions left out there) and the plausibility of it all after having some framework shown to us. There are still five episodes to find out what will happen to them all (do they ever find a home world?), if resurrection is gone for good, what happened to Starbuck, and if certain characters (Sam!) will survive and why. I'm pretty sure a return to "Earth" is inevitable, SPOILERS that's where the Five's resurrection research equipment still is apparently, and presumably Deanna is still there sulking. I wonder what the point of introducing the "eighth" cylon was, or rather if there will be anything on him(?) beyond an illustration of the depth of coldness to which Cavil's behavior can sink. With the architects of resurrection all together I can't help but wonder if it will return in some way or another. I think the cylons are much more interesting mortal, but the potential to download into new bodies does raise interesting possibilities for characters like Rosalyn or even Dee. I like the subplot showing the wear and tear on Galactica's structural frame, a very real and visual reminder of all the ship (and its crew) has been through. I sense that something unexpected will happen when they use the organic cylon resin to strengthen the ship...

After having played catch up for so long with the series, in some ways it's hard to have to wait, but in other ways it's fun to still have a few new episodes to wonder about and predict for.

Machinarium

2009-02-13T11:04:00.010-05:00

How cool is it when you find out that the devs of some of your favorite games are working on something new!? Well, that's just what happened to me today; those creative people behind the Samorost point-and-click web games are working on a "full scale" adventure called Machinarium, hopefully to be out later this year. The game looks to follow in Samorost's footsteps of whimsical, often alien (and yet familiar), hand-drawn worlds in which players must solve puzzles to advance and explore. Below is a brief teaser video; they don't show much of gameplay in case you're worried about spoiler solutions (you can also do like I did and just click through it to break it up even more):

Machinarium Preview 02 from Amanita Design on Vimeo.

I sometimes think that works like this may be greater than things like 9 (below) for a number of reasons; the man power needed to create something like Machinarium is much less than that needed for something like 9, lowering costs and ultimately the bar for entry for the common creative (hu)man. Also, the user in works like Machinarium is an active player within the world, whereas the user in 9 is a passive viewer outside of it. Both contain narratives which may be just as linear, but because of said differences in format I can't help but look to the smaller production with optimism for what the future may hold.

9, 13, 14

2009-02-08T23:51:00.013-05:00

I nearly forgot; this trailer played before Coraline, and despite looking like a cross between LittleBigPlanet and Fallout 3 (or perhaps because of it) I am intrigued.

Also, episodes 13 and 14 of BSG season 4 (The Oath and Blood on the Scales) had me literally on the edge of my seat. From the beginning, despite what dangers beset the fleet, Galactica has always been the most stable element; a solid rock of certainty. All that changed when SPOILERS there's a highly organized and effective mutiny aboard, throwing everyone's fates up in the air. Much of the impact of episode 11 was pure shock value. This kind of writing on the other hand is exactly what makes BSG great.

Collaborative Works

2009-02-07T09:15:00.017-05:00

These are both brief, fun little animations I made with the help of my brother in one case and my nieces in the other. They make you appreciate the polished look of movies like Coraline and all the work that goes into making them!

Coraline!

2009-02-06T23:03:00.004-05:00

Woo! What a fun movie. Great, unique story, very imaginative with beautiful visuals.

Makes me want to see James and the Giant Peach... and post my own tiny stop-motion works.

Bearded Spock

2009-02-06T11:30:00.002-05:00

BSG season 4.5 is giving off an odd vibe; like being in an alternate universe ever since they reached earth. It feels like everyone has a different identity and different motives. It's almost unsettling to watch after you've spent so much time with these characters; you don't know who they are anymore.

Sometimes a Great Notion

2009-02-05T09:50:00.008-05:00

P2 and I have been watching BSG from the beginning of the series all over again and have just now caught up to the new episodes from season 4.5. We watched the first last night before bed; episode 11, Sometimes a Great Notion. Had I known I would have waited to watch it; not the best choice right before bed. The series takes a plunge with one of the darkest if not the darkest episode yet. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. I suppose I should have braced myself for something bad after ep. 10's cliffhanger about the nuked Earth, but man. Widespread despair, hope extinguished, and even more questions raised than answered with discoveries made on the planet that call much into question. I know they like to turn everything upside-down on that show, but I really hope they can tie this all together well to end the series.

I spent a couple of hours on SciFi's message board reading other fans' reactions to the episode. They were similar to my own; shock mostly, trying to make sense of things. I was hoping to find some insight, but as usually happens with a shocking twist eventually you come to accept it as fact and try to interpret it. I don't know if anything more is revealed in the next two episodes that are out, but we'll probably end up watching those tonight so we'll be caught up to the new stuff.

Spoilers follow, if you don't want to know don't read.

I liked Dee's character, and as several forumgoers underscored her character embodied faith and hope. Her suicide was a very literal sign of the extinguishing of that faith and hope throughout the fleet. Adama was on the verge and Tigh said so were many others. The President/Prophet was burning her scriptures and didn't want the man she professed to love (just two episodes ago) nearby. Perhaps she wanted to keep their love separate from her crushing despair.

Starbuck - after watching the episode where she disappears/dies, (Maelstrom I think it is) again, I had pretty firmly decided that she had to have been resurrected to return to the fleet, whether as a cylon or in some other way. The "new ship" was a big clue that it was also a new pilot, or at least a new body for the pilot. The cylon she was with seemed pretty shook up when they found her wreckage, but not because of what they found so much as what Kara said at the same time (and I think many forumgoers missed this and so are drawing outlandish conclusions about her being some kind of angel). She told him about what the hybrid said of her; that she is the Harbinger of Death, leading them all to their end. I'm fairly certain now that the hybrid was referring to the cylons, not humanity as shortly after that their resurrection hub was destroyed, making them mortal.

The two biggest shocks though and perhaps the keys to understanding all this were that the bodies on Earth were cylon, ALL cylon with some kind of unknown centurion, and that Ellen is supposedly the fifth cylon model and what she said about the plan for resurrection being in place. If there is some kind of re-incarnation/download apparatus on or inside the Earth that would account for the final five (and Starbuck)'s presence in the world of humans.

What doesn't make sense are the time frames. Supposedly the 13th tribe of (humans? cylons?) left for earth thousands of years ago, like 3,000-4,000 years ago. But humans created the cylons much more recently. So how were there humanoid cylon remains on the planet STILL INTACT after a nuclear war 2,000 years ago!?!? The metal centurion parts, fine... but bones? Bones don't last that long under those circumstances. Either everyone's a cylon, or that planet is not our same Earth. Why it took so long for the final five to download is up in the air; if the planet has some kind of resurrective technology about it it must work differently than downloading; namely it isn't instantaneous. The final five took 2,000 years to resurrect among the humans and Kara took two months. This indicates to me that there is some travel time involved somehow and would also pave the way for Dee to return, depending on how close to Earth you would have to die. Perhaps only those killed on the surface can be resurrected. But then why only five out of all the cylons there before, and why Kara now?

In any case the humans' 13th tribe and the cylons' final five are inextricably linked. But they have some explaining to do to sort that all out.

Picturesque

2009-02-04T00:48:00.003-05:00

Success!

2009-02-03T00:09:00.002-05:00

We had a successful chat over TeamSpeak while playing Brawl tonight; the bluetooth headset worked just great! I could hear the guys just fine and apparently they could hear me fine as well. Sometimes there are sensitivity adjustments to be made with the microphone, but apparently it worked pretty well right off the bat. I like that the headset uses a AAA battery so I don't have to worry about recharging some internal one.

Bluetooth

2009-01-31T13:39:00.009-05:00

Woo! My practically new $11 bluetooth headset (Motorola H300) arrived in the mail and has been successfully paired with both the computer and PS3. All that remains is to test it out in a chat and tweak settings, but it looks like I'll now be able to chat while playing LBP or Brawl online with buddies!

Games to Finish

2009-01-29T14:44:00.009-05:00

There are several games that for one reason or another I've never gotten around to finishing. They're good games, and I really should finish them:

Zelda: A Link to the Past
Yoshi's Island DS
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Okami
Viewtiful Joe
Lost Winds
Professor Layton and the Curious Village

I'm probably about 75% of the way through each, possibly more. The trouble with going back into a game at that point after long periods of time is you have completely lost your direction and momentum. It's tough to pick up on where you're supposed to go/what to do next and the nuances of how your character works most effectively. There are also a few games I have that I've only just begun or not begun:

Mole Mania
Drill Dozer
Nights: Journey of Dreams
Beyond Good and Evil
Viewtiful Joe 2
Flow

:D~

2009-01-28T18:11:00.000-05:00

Ah Yes...

2009-01-27T23:15:00.005-05:00

Uma. How could I forget Uma? She is somewhat older than me compared with the two years Zooey has on me and the mere week separating Kirsten and me. So, the triumvirate stands thusly (sorry Keira):

SimTunes

2009-01-21T14:27:00.021-05:00

Came across a neat find at a Salvation Army* store the other day, and I wouldn't have recognized it had I not known a little history. Mixed in with the music and children's software CDs was SimTunes, a game published by Maxis under the Sim franchise umbrella in the mid-nineties. So what? Just another piece of kids' software, right? Wrong! If you know where to look, in the lower right corner on the back is a tiny logo that says "Toshio Iwai Works." More recently known for his work on Tenori-on and Electroplankton, Iwai is a visionary artist who playfully blends music and visuals to create new ways of looking at instruments and music creation. SimTunes was one of his earlier creations, once in development for SNES (as Sound Fantasy) never released for one reason or another. SimTunes is for Windows 95, but I was able to get it working in an emulator without any trouble. Pretty neat little game, and way ahead of its time. Basically these little musical instrument "bugz" move in a straight line, and emit a note when they move over a pixel of color, various colors producing various pitches. You can paint on the surface they crawl across, and hear what the picture sounds like based on the color interpretation and how the bugz crawl across it. There are also pixels that reflect and turn the bugz, so you can really get creative with how they move and the sounds they make. There are a number of great Japanese artist/creators who I'd love to have the opportunity to meet someday, but probably never will: Shigeru Miyamoto, Hayao Miyazaki, Yasunori Mitsuda, Nobuo Uematsu and of course, Toshio Iwai.

In other game/creativity news, I noticed this for sale a few weeks ago and am somewhat interested. Though, I haven't created any new creatures in awhile now. Maybe if I can find it cheap. Right now though my focus is on LBP.

*They should really call them "Salvage Army" stores. :|

-o-

2009-01-21T01:06:00.004-05:00

I hit a bit of a wall today in LBP, and looking back I think I was pushing too hard to try to re-invent the wheel. I had some new ideas for things, but I should have used old solutions to create them. Instead I found myself getting frustrated as everything was taking too long to do and didn't look that great. I have to remember that form needs to follow function for it to work as a game and be fun. The look is important, but the underlying structure has to be in place or else it's not really useful.

The WoW patch was released today and I purchased my mechanostrider; very gratifying. Scratch one more item off of the to-do list.

Out of the Frying Pan...

2009-01-16T00:14:00.006-05:00

Do you hear the sound of suction? No, it isn't WoW this time. LBP is making it difficult for me to take even a few minutes away from creating to do basic things like eating lunch. It's quite frightening actually. I'm making real headway on the quidditch level though - it's really starting to come into its own now that all the pieces are coming together. I've solved all my perplexing "how to" problems, and I think I've gotten better at solving problems in general... :| I came up with a really elegant solution to my "shield" problem of how to keep the various flying balls on various layers contained so that players with various flight ranges could always reach them. And it's purty too. Invisible actually; nothing so crude as the glass dome I'd originally thought I'd have to use. No, this one works invisibly in the background and sports schanzzy animations! Oh, it's a sight to behold. I can go there now! Where's my toolbox... I'd like to add a suction sound effect object to this post, activated on reader proximity. :P

Joys and Challenges

2009-01-15T09:27:00.003-05:00

I have a new level of respect for game developers. Granted, this is by first real go at level design, and I've only been at it a few days now, but wow. It takes alot of time and alot of fore-thought, plus alot of testing to get something that looks good and works the way you want it to. I am making progress; some of the time spent is in working with the interface. For example, you can glue objects together and then glue them to the floor. However, if you try to then detach them you get weird results sometimes, or if dissolve material is attached and it gets dissolved all the joints on the object also break. So I'm learning how to build stuff the right way.

Sometimes I find myself just sitting there thinking about how to make a physical apparatus to accomplish a certain goal. Example: various types of sensors (inputs) in the game can be connected to multiple objects (outputs), BUT, you can't connect multiple inputs to the same output. I guess that makes sense as you wouldn't want the object receiving multiple, mixed or conflicting messages. It is problematic however when you want the same event to be triggered by various possible things. In the end I made a device that accepts multiple inputs that all, in the same way press a button on the device. I can then hook the output from that button up to whatever singular event I want to trigger. One-time events are also tricky to execute, and I've settled on a solution that destroys the apparatus after the input has been made.

So far I've made all of the quidditch balls, cheering crowds, the (large and complex) stadium, and the behind-the-scenes devices that drive ball behavior. I still need to attach the scoring apparatus and devise some kind of shield or shields that will keep both the snitch and players within the stadium, while still looking good. I wish that string could be made invisible; that would be the easiest way to keep the snitch in bounds. Because if you could see it you could simply follow it to find it. Plus, I'm working on a way to introduce the snitch into the game at various unknown points and times, like in books, so that really wouldn't work anyway.

I wish I could post some pictures or video of stuff...

The Orb of Dreams

2009-01-12T21:06:00.004-05:00

That's what everyone in the Omniverse calls Earth, and for good reason. Today I had an absolutely blissful time getting my feet wet in LittleBigPlanet's level creator. My experiments with jetpacks and floating material led me to pursue the possibility of re-creating a game of quidditch, within the game of LBP. As my first challenge, creating a working snitch was probably not the easiest thing to tackle - but my curiosity and enthusiasm surmounted the usual setbacks in the design process and at the end of the day I'd done it; I made a working snitch! It flys (floats) around, flapping its wings, and when a player gets close, zoom! Away it blasts on rocket power! Despite being quick and tricky to pin down, it is possible to catch - just like the "real" thing. Perhaps a larger challenge once I'd gotten the right balance of bouyant material and heavy wings and rockets was what to do with the snitch once caught? If this is to be a game based on the rules of quidditch, catching the snitch means the end of the game and 150 points awarded to one team only. I puzzled for awhile as to how to make a physical scoring apparatus that would do just that. I'd already worked out how to keep players' endzones separate, but this was a bit different; it can only work for one team and it has to end the game! In the end I worked it out (and rather elegantly if I do say so myself), and after that was all figured out, making quaffles was comparatively easy! I've got an idea for bludgers, and once they're made I can begin putting it all together in a level, a schnazzy quidditch pitch complete with cheering fans, tented stadium and maybe even a referee! Really, the only limit is your imagination. There is enough freedom provided in the tools to build just about anything you can dream up. Yet, it's done in a way that's not overwhelming. It's just brilliant, and so much fun for someone like me! :D

Achievements

2009-01-08T21:11:00.006-05:00

I'm now Exalted with Gnomeregan Exiles! It took alot of runecloth but actually went much faster than I expected. Now if they'd just release the patch. I also became Revered with Knights of the Ebon Blade, allowing be to purchase a better weapon; a sweet-looking two hand sword. LBP arrived in the mail today too. Shipped Monday, it took three days to get from Chicago to Michigan. Hmmmm. :/ Oh well - it's here now and I'm having fun diving into it, collecting all I can so that I can start building soon. Awesome game; PS3's killer app.

Rank In

2009-01-07T20:32:00.024-05:00

I like to rank things for some reason. It brings a measure of order to the chaos of my mind...

Naim and I got talking about Miyazaki. To anyone who doesn't know who Hayao Miyazaki is, I say he's the Walt Disney of Japanese animation. Not a direct correlation perhaps, but a good comparison for the quality, hand-drawn and family-friendly, fairy tale nature of the works of both visionary animators. Below are my favorite Miyazaki films ranked from my favorite on down:

Howl's Moving Castle
Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Kiki's Delivery Service
Castle in the Air

Didn't really care for Porco Rosso, but there are still a few I need to see like My Neighbor Totoro. The voices of many big name actors have been employed for the English language versions of Miyazaki's films, from Billy Crystal to Christian Bale, Patrick Stewart, Edward James Olmos and even Kirsten Dunst!

KD has lately fallen to second place in a ranking (of mine) of female actors, beaten out by Zooey Deschanel (the third spot is less secure, but I guess if pressed I'd go with Keira Knightley). I most recently saw Zooey in Bridge to Terabithia, though she's now in Yes Man alongside Jim Carrey. I really liked Bridge; it was very touching and filled with believable characters. Also in the movie (but not ranked with the above) was the young, up-and-coming AnnaSophia Robb, who was previously in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and who will be in that upcoming Witch Mountain movie.

Nearly Exalted

2009-01-07T18:06:00.002-05:00

Wow, I never expected to get this close to being Exalted with Gnomeregan Exiles after only a couple of days. Today, thanks to strategic questing and a windfall of cheap stacks of runecloth on the AH I was able to go from about 1/3rd through Revered to only 2.5 bubbles away from Exalted! I should get there tomorrow no sweat. Now if Blizzard would only release the patch so I can purchase my mechanostrider! >(

LBP en Route!

2009-01-03T17:28:00.006-05:00

Using some more Amazon credit plus a gift card, I was able to snag LittleBigPlanet off Amazon for a mere $22 out of pocket! Shipping fast out of Illinois I may even have it in hand by next week sometime. I need to have some ideas ready so I can plunge into creating once it arrives!

My time in WoW has been reduced of late due to travel and time spent with family, causing me to miss out on some guild raids. Hopefully I'll be able to join in on the next ones. I have been able to sneak in a little time during which I've been working on my reputations. I'm doing the dailies with Oracles for rep and gold, low-level quests for Gnomeregan rep, and poking my nose into Steamvault just enough to nab Coilfang Armaments for Cenarion Expedition rep. I can take on two 70 elite mobs at a time without much difficulty, and three at a time if I pay attention to what I'm doing. Each armament yields 75 rep, and I can get around 10 of them per hour, totalling around 1 bubble of rep. I need just under six more bubbles of rep to get to Exalted, and I can probably pull that off in a day of dedicated play!

Speedy Delivery

2008-12-30T23:43:00.004-05:00

I wanted to post an update here before bed (and company during the next couple of days). The PS3 arrived, it's now set up and working great. There was awhile when I was worried though; beginning the day after Christmas when I tracked the PS3 online from Bay City to find that it had been delivered! Yes, two days after ordering, despite (or maybe because) it being so close to Christmas, the package arrived in only a couple of days. No waiting to be shipped; no long time en route... just BAM. I wasn't expecting it to ship so fast; especially via Free, Super-Saver Shipping! The other thing I didn't think they would do is leave a nearly $400 item at the door without requiring any kind of signature on delivery. That shocked me, and left me scrambling for options as we wouldn't be home for another three days. Thankfully my good buddy Naim came through for me and was able to swing by and pick up the package and keep it safe. Anyone walking by could have picked it up off the porch and had a nice new PS3. My PS3! Frightening.

So I hung out with Naim yesterday, played some LBP and brought home the PS3, apparently none the worse for having sat out in the cold for awhile. Little Big Planet boggles the mind with creative possibility. I can't wait to get it and sink my teeth into it, creating some awesome content myself. You can create everything from ground to sound effects, behavior switches... oh man. I need to start dreaming up some ideas so I'm not stalled out once I get it. $50. >o<

In WoW I'm now Revered with Oracles so I can start hatching eggs, and I'm about 3/4 of the way through Revered with Cenarion Expedition. I may get to Exalted in the next couple of days if I can hang with the grind; I have enough saved up from quests to buy the hippogriff once I get there. After I get to Exalted with CE I'll be working on Gnomeregan Exiles. I just hit Honored working on starter quests in Dun Morogh, and I'd like to be Exalted once the patch hits (so I can get a mechanostrider right away)! :D

A Day of Achievement

2008-12-22T17:44:00.011-05:00

Had some big stuff happen today in gaming; one was that I ordered a PS3, the other was I got to level 80 in WoW. Some interesting stats to look at here, but first a bit on the PS3. I've found that I really like games where I can create and share my own content. This realization began with Brawl's level creator, expanded through Spore Creature Creator and will be fully realized in Little Big Planet, once I get it. I guess looking back I did always like to create levels; back in the day I'd spend hours making and tweaking levels in The Incredible Machine. I need to save up for LBP though; PS3s are not cheap. I was able to save about $40 on Amazon right off the bat, then with Amazon credit I'd been building up plus some anticipated Christmas money on the horizon, we're only actually putting out about $100. And, as our old DVD player is on the fritz, this is the perfect time to upgrade.

Doodsridder is now max level, and just as 70 did with Alambil pre-WotLK, 80 with Doods will significantly loosen WoW's stranglehold on my free time. I still have some soloing goals beyond dungeons and raids with Tim and the guild. These are as follows: Obtain (and probably sell) a mechanical chicken, obtain the quest item that transforms oneself into a furblog, become exalted with Gnomregan Exiles (so that I can get a mechanostrider once the racial requirements on them are lifted!), become exalted with Cenarion Expedition to get a Cenarion War Hippogriff, get a Green Proto-Drake once becoming revered with the Oracles, and explore Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor (Northrend and Outland are already done) for the World Explorer achievement and title. Sounds like alot to do, but I can work on it at my leisure and at a much more relaxed pace of maybe an hour or two per day. I was looking at some stats for Doods and on average I've been completing about 50 quests per day! :o

Virtual Stuff

2008-12-18T18:32:00.008-05:00

Haven't written in awhile. Doods is at level 78, halfway to 79, which could be viewed as 1.5 levels away from 80. Deciding to give her gathering professions, and leveling those up before hitting Northrend was a wise decision and one that, much to my surprise, allowed me to purchase both Cold Weather Flying and Artisan Flying (6000g combined) within about a day of one another upon hitting 77. It's very, very nice being able to fly around almost anywhere so quickly. I was telling Tim that while my current mount is epic speed, there are a couple of others that have caught my eye that I'm working towards.

One is the Cenarion War Hippogryph for a couple of reasons; not many people have it, and it conveys my connection with the druids from my first character. I'm halfway through revered, and my choices for getting through the other half include collecting poacher ears in Borean Tundra and running Steamvault. The former, while tried and true is a slow process; 150 rep for 15 ears. The latter yields 12 rep per mob in the instance, plus an additional turn-in for Coilfang Armaments - I just haven't run the instance yet. I'd need around 1.5k more gold for that one though even if I was exalted, so there's no rush just yet.

The other epic flier that's caught my eye is the Green Proto-Drake. I never really liked the shark-dragon combo look of the netherdrakes; proto-drakes seem more dragonish to me, evocative of a shorter-necked version of the winged nazgul mount from LotR. And green is my favorite color. :D So, that one is a random drop from an egg you can get once a week from the big-tongues in Sholazar Basin once you're revered with them. Their dailies yield quite a bit of rep, so it's just a matter of time, and luck.

Finally there's the Deathcharger ground mount. Ever since I saw Rivendare on his starting out as a death knight I wanted one. I experimented with soloing Stratholm today with success; ran it to Rivendare three times, died twice (overwhelmed by mobs, not bosses); got about 6 blues from the 4 bosses each run. It took some time, partially because I'd only ever run it once before, following a group, partially because I'm not at 80 yet. Still, my best run was about 20 minutes. Not bad. At its low (~1%) droprate though I'll have to run it alot. So that will be the last one I go for, if at all. In general though I'm really enjoying the expansion. Excellent quests and lore; better than anything pre-WotLK imo. Blizzard has really outdone themselves.

In other news an open box PS3 at a good deal is teasing me on Amazon. I've seen them appear and vanish a couple of times but haven't had my credit ready to snag it yet. Ah well, I'll have to trust there will be another one there once I have my ducks in a row. Patience.