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I want a Super Mario Brothers screensaver. Mario or Luigi jumping around onscreen, 8/16-bit platform-style, busting blocks and Koopas. Sound effects would be cool, too, though not necessary for me to enjoy it. Setting this up would, in one way, be so incredibly simple that one wonders why such a thing has not yet surfaced.
How am I complicating this? By making the Brothers interact with their environment entirely on their own. No scripted sequences beyond the left-right-left of forward venture. The Mario Brothers act completely of their own initiative, leaving us free to watch. We know how to navigate levels with our controllers, how to stomp on Goombas, where to toss those fireballs. Can a program be made to do so? Without being a memory drain? Mario should have the sense not to run full-on into Buzzy Beetle, not without Star power, at least. Luigi should not be so short-sighted as to kick a shell into a wall and bounce back at him, especially without first stuffing the Koopa inside first.
A few solid levels, or even a dynamic level-builder, shouldn't break more than a dozen megs of memory. Remember that (Super) Nintendo/Famicom cartridges didn't need DVD-level storage to provide years of gameplay. Monitors broke the 16-bit barrier long ago; regressing to capture the familiar palettes of old is not a problem. And the processors? We probably have more sophisticated chipsets in our mobile phones.
So why not, Nintendo? When can I look forward to my screensaver? (I wouldn't mind a Mega Man or a Final Fantasy, neither...)
I thought Allyson Hannigan was pretty cool, especially as Michelle in American Pie. Well, as she lays down the character acting and presents the acts on the new WB performance show, I've found that she has a cool accent as well. A bit of brogue remains in her natural speaking voice. Adorable.
Robbie, from Everybody Loves Raymond, in the episode where he describes his "decoy journal" strategy to Ray, has one of these CD boomboxes in (one of) his apartment(s). I got mine as a present in 1995 or so. It came with a John Tesh anthology, which I still listen to on occasion. Soon after, I got albums by Foo Fighters and Keiko Matsui.
But yeah, it's strange how the design is so recognizable. It doesn't have too many features, and the radio reception is a little shotty, but its performance is solid. Mine got a little kicked in somehow, but otherwise, it's quite pristine.
The trouble with Instant Messenger is that it is way too easy to spam people with it. It's in the design—hyperlinks with a special protocol, go unhindered to the victim, save for an optional (but still intrusive) dialog box. Rig a program to send unwarranted offers, and now you can irritate the fuck out of millions of people...oh, I mean, "conduct business with unlimited horizons".
Isn't there a way to separate the legitimate yet initiatory messages from the remaining crap, or at least from the Viagra and willing sluts? Think about it, the messages that don't get Ignored are subsequently closed. Also, they usually arrive singly, with a hyperlink to some porn site with vicious ActiveX and JavaScript traps. They're also conspicuously formatted with exacting detail—the typical AIMer doesn't use headers and provocative colors.
If we can take this further, is there a way to make people responsible for the shit they try to pull online? Can it be done without being censorious? Sure, porn and smut are societal vices, but people still find them entertaining. Unwanted business is simply...evil. At least have the decency to do it in person and receive your rightful ass-kicking. Try out this thing called "courage", at least.
Now here's where I fire off some stray memes, things I would like to bring to fruition, but likely won't. It's like being in a riot—amid all the strife and rebellion, there's a lot of cool things to steal. If you have the rocks, the world is open to you. But you're limited to what you can carry. I've got lots of videos and electronics, and I'm looking for help with the bigscreen, but the gunfire's whizzing by with madness and there's so much more stuff left in the store.
Raid my "store" of some peripherals:
More to come when I have more time. Do good with them.
My kitchen shears have returned, anonymously. For now, it is enough that whoever borrowed them had sense enough to return them. Due to the aversive nature of our household (perhaps our generation?) I may never find out who used my shears. I don't feel like dusting for prints or acquiring trace genetic samples—these are shears after all.
The real issue here is probably how I conceive of my possessions: for all the grief that I go through, my kitchenwares have been most supportive. I guess I trust my utensils more than my bed, more than my computer, perhaps more than my friends and family. Is this a cultural thing? Of all my daily, petty desires, my hunger is satisfied most often, most securely. My words fail me occasionally; sleep can be painful and little more than escapist; relations demand mutual reciprocation—food regularly empowers oneself to handle other problems, or at the least, reminds us of the simple pleasures of life.
Is this what drives the acutely obese? The gastronomes and gustatorians? I imagine some people have this sort of archetypal relationship with food and cooking, kind of like someone who finds relief in saccharine and hearty delights, but less on a chemical level and more spiritual. Of course, this has the potential to be abused, but the more masterful among us can apply such a quirk to our advantages rather than to our vices.
I want to believe that my true affections are not limited to what are ultimately inanimate devices, leaving me unable to forge decent relationships with decent people. No use worrying about it...
Hey, if you're curious as to what I can craft with kitchenware, invite me over. I'll make you dinner. I'll make you love dinner.
While filling out Lost Cause in various ways (completed some character designs, laid out the major hierarchies), drafting more Illiterati and Supermarket! strips, and coding the access page that will eventually serve all the comics here, I think it will help things to fire off a few stray strips in a collection to be called WTF?. As the name implies, WTF? will deal mainly with some ideas that I probably can't fit into my other projects. If tomorrow permits, I'll have one up by the next night. Here's to it.
No one has challenged ownership of my pans, but my shears have gone missing. I haven't even used them yet and already someone has seen it fit to make them vanish. Pretty vicious of someone in the household. Prior warning for those of you who may wind up in my company: if you can't be trusted with my utensils, you will be stabbed with them. (A little ironic of me to say this, as Carina likely has my previous pair of kitchen shears; however, she's gotten more than justice, so my mention ends here.)
Three good shows dealing with the business of TV broadcasting. The first was a show about the "JBC News Network". There are some neat shows on 26 KTSF, Chinese sitcoms, Japanese game shows, period dramas (like Musashi, which was particularly exciting last night). Bijo ka Yajuu isn't subtitled, but there was more than enough of an intelligible plot in this episode: veteran anchor struggles with young news team and the new upstart at the desk. I suppose the age issue comes up in every industry, but in newscasting the older male brings a distinguished level of trustworthiness, comprehensibility, and often, perspective. (Not too many examples of the female variety just yet.) Here, the veteran saves the broadcast day when his replacement falters during a breaking segment.
Meanwhile on PBS, an Antarctic expedition tested the mettle of a group of explorers and scientists, who were led by some experienced climbers up the east slope of Vinson Massif—the largest peak—for some climatology and precision surveying. In between lectures on glacial mechanics and the history of the first South Pole expeditions, concerns were raised about the hardiness of the NOVA crew documenting the journey. While everyone else had at least some experience with tall-mountain climbing, the documentarians were rather fresh. Ultimately, they all held their own against the frozen desert and came back safely from a trip filled with many firsts.
On Are You Being Served?, the sales floor rolled up an advert for the tele. Dressing up Mr. Rumbold for the camera (complete with scalp de-glosser, ear flattener, and replacement hair), rejuvenating Mrs. Slocombe, and giving shrill Miss Brahms a little tonal balance (courtesy of Old Mr. Grace's nurse). A few tricks of the trade, the latter being enough for a well-off Lord to invite Miss Brahms to dinner on account of "her sexy voice".
University fees are due on the 28th. Those paying with Financial Aid are eligible for a fee deferral. Why, then, have I not yet received any of my financial aid paperwork? I must have been among the first to file my FAFSA and all that; SJSU has my current address; the economy isn't that bad. Two of my roommates already have their papers, though they received them Friday. I'm not going to get booted from classes because other people can't be depended on to handle matters that affect me.
Meanwhile, a particularly adventurous chub of breakfast sausage may have gotten me in trouble with the card—I was charged twice for my groceries today. (Still had to get them olives and prosch and 409 with free kicthen timer and mandarin oranges to go with the other canned fruits I got from Zanotto's to make my own ambrosia...) It seemed strange of the clerk to simply "cancel" the premature charge and then beep the sausage into the complete bill. I thought nothing of it until my card site showed both charges as pending.
All in all, a bad day for my wallet. Watch...next my bank is going to complain about the withdrawal I made earlier today.
California is a little dicked right now. But contrary to what Republicans would have you believe, I don't think our problems can all be traced back to one man, no matter how influential he is. Gray Davis had little to do with the fuckups over at Enron, who couldn't quite get away with robbing the state. Energy market deregulation, which is one of California's major failures, cannot be directly attributed to Davis, who, despite any campaign contributions or other benefits proferred by energy providers, had little to gain compared to the companies that profited most. And the budget crisis? California's very politcal structure encourages the sort of battles that drive budget planning.
I likely haven't addressed every concern over Davis' terms as governor, and what I have addressed probably isn't all that correct, but I'll stick with what I've said here. I'd rather recall the entire California political system than single out Davis.
...to Nicole from DeAnza. Hope all your Sociology stuff pans out. No rush needed for State. It'll probably kick up a ways in later years.
After six years, Zanotto's Family Markets is closing their Downtown location after a popular run in the deli lunch business and subsequent economic fallout. I was first drawn to Downtown Zanotto's when Lucky stores were still around. Compared to Downtown Lucky's iffy packaged meats, Zanotto's had a relatively fresh butchery (still no visible slaughter :( ). I also got my first few sets of sushi from there. Meats and cheeses from their deli made for some kickass sandwiches.
But now they're leaving. The dairy section has been gutted, deliveries stopped. All of the dry goods/packaged foods are 30% off, and other sections are being cleared out at up to 70% discount. I came in for a can of olives and some prosciutto, and walked away with everything but. A gallon of olive oil; enough soup for a week; Beanie Weenie; whatever I could carry down the street.
If you're a little hard off with the groceries, do the Zanotto's folk a hand and help them with the moving. Even better, pray that the economy will turn around someday and make Downtown more hospitable to fine establishments like Zanotto's.
Side note: One among the Zanotto's family happens to be named Kimber. Kimber Zanotto. I don't remember her name having influence on my own "Kimber" from Supermarket!, but it's interesting to note. I need to make more strips soon... :p
Westfield is going crazy with all the expansions. Oakridge, which to now was just another small-scale, backwoods sort of mall, will be expanded to about three times its original size. A third of the stores (Suncoast among them) have closed, but I suppose they will show up again in some form or another.
Anyhow, which among our malls and shopping centers could qualify as a self-sustainable community? The marketplaces of old could sustain themselves since the focus was more on trade and barter than individual profit. Could a place like Oakridge sustain itself? There would be an obvious choke point with regards to food and health care. The eateries are few here, and besides the security office, GNC, and the optometrist, I can't think of any place that could cater to any medical issues. I also wonder if the average mall wage offers enough disposable income to return to the stores.
I bought a sweet set of frypans today. Stainless steel, heat-distributing, fairly heavy, and sale priced. The best thing about them? If someone tries to throw one of them away because I momentarily forgot to clear it off the stove, I can beat the offender with the other two!
The best movie commercial I've ever seen? Probably American Pie's. The best scene in the movie was alluded to, but not shown. "Like warm apple pie," Levy's character would say as Jim stares at a freshly baked delicacy. They couldn't show the next scene on TV because of "issues", but I still like to think that perhaps they were saving the surprise for the movie-goers.
Enter Bad Boys 2. Lawrence's character suffers through his major ordeal (including the Bullet Time™ setup); the psychic warns the Boys about the boat in the freeway chase; they argue with each other during the one-shot gunfight; Smith shows off his trademark two-gunning style; all for the television audience. Even with Bruckheimer in the chair, I doubt that there are any more significant shots for the movie crowd.
I feel that giving away all the goodies before the tickets are sold is a bad marketing idea. This is worse than hyping a movie by using scenes that won't appear (there are some compelling exceptions). I understand that viewers want to sample the action beforehand, but there are less revealing ways to do so. The goal for movie commercials should be to tease, to entice, to attract eager viewers to the box office. Doing so while maintaining the style, the look, the atmosphere, and without compromising the storyline, is an underused skill in the marketing departments.
I'm watching footage of Celia Cruz' funeral on Univision. Remember, she was "The Queen of Salsa"/la Reina de Salsa, famous most especially for her "Guantanamera". Along with the late Tito Puenté (who himself passed away around the turn of the century), they spearheaded the insurgence of Cuban-American music into the mainstream, hitting peak around the fifties, and never quite falling off.
The usual gospel stylings of the ceremony at St. Paul's have been replaced by a lamentous salsa, crisp and rhythmic. Her death last Wednesday was brought about by brain cancer, which wasn't enough to keep her from singing (she cancelled concerts to honor Puenté's passing). Aged yet elegant, Celia's voice seemed eternal, indistinguishable from her younger self. Over 70 albums remain to her credit, so hopefully many will continue to enjoy her work.
Seems that nothing brings roommates closer together than helping one break into their room. Often more reliable than keeping a spare key, especially if you keep it in your room next to your regular keys. I'd rather not bother my sister with it, and there's no other (better) place to keep it at the moment. Anyhow, Ken the new guy and Elan were surprisingly helpful in my little enterprise. We even came up with some cool strategies to try the next time something like this happens.
All just to save on the $25 penalty fee...
In addition, I found that I have access to the (scary) basement. Inside were a few of those nifty square electric fans, one of which currently sits comfortably on my windowsill, correcting the temperature of my room! Huz-zah! Take that, misbegotten insulation...
So I'm watching She Spies, NBC's late-night comedy, and David Rasche is on. Few of you might remember him from Sledge Hammer, a hilarious (short-lived) 80's police farce. His trademark ivory-handled revolver was just as smart-mouthed as he was; his superior had patience for neither; his partner had to manage them all. Good show, it was. Had nothing to do with Peter Gabriel's Sledge Hammer, which was also pretty popular around that time. It had a great video, though—it also helped that MTV actually played videos around this time, and good ones, too. The thing was almost entirely shot in stop-motion, save for that strange blacklight segment at the end. Peter is framed, entrenched, and sometimes replaced by fruit, woodwork, flowers, and all kinds of objects.
Yeah. Oh, and back to the She Spies? Their employer uses color-coded plastic case binders, the same kind that we sell at work.
Sorry I haven't written much lately. Something about the past week left me less than enthusiastic about my days. I don't what combination of heat, depression, or simple bewilderment kept me bound to the bed.
Somehow I managed to get quite a bit done. It wasn't focused on any one thing—perhaps the game engine I've been developing for the past two years. I took a good look at the first few Lost Cause notes I made. (LC to me is a trilogy of games linked by a common ideology and ethic, systematic modeling, and thematic approach.) All the trait charts, abilities, and gameworld considerations I drew up since then can be traced back to at least two early ideas. They were the kind of ideas that, though simple to describe, could not yet be adequately modeled by my engine.
One particularly dangerous spell available momentarily "devolves" its target. It thinks in less sophisticated ways. Yay, but what does that mean? What abilities were considered "sophisticated", and to what degree? Perhaps the victim will now act less strategically and be more straightforward, more predictable. But now what is "strategic", and more importantly, how can a character "predict" what is going to happen? What if the whole endeavour was too ethically horrific for the spellcaster to consider?
This sort of "what if" thinking has taken my idea very far along the way to a design document. It also convinced me that if I were to make this marketable, it would have to bring something novel to the industry. I could think of a lot of ways to make my game idea better than others around, but this seems to me a low way to improve. I'm going to make this the kind of game that inspires others to best it, if such is possible.
I want to be able to say the same about the story. The whole thing plays out over three eras: historic, pseudo-modern, and futuristic. The futuristic era lends itself well to production in its own right, being as grand as it is. (This is the comic I keep talking about.) The historic era sets up everything, so it's the least-developed portion at the moment. It probably doesn't help timewise that I'm approaching the entire development in a sporadic manner, hitting up this and that, revisiting earlier ideas, thinking of new things I could put in that won't break everything before it.
Favor the people who can't remember your name over those who would sooner forget it.
As "Semantic Web" technologies like RSS (which for now helps automate news and retail sites) make the Internet easier to make and interconnect, we'll start to see more things like Google's Froogle, which is going through betas. Froogle, in a manner like Google News, scours through online storefronts to create a world-spanning, multi-brand, customized catalog. (At first glance, I thought it was an auction search feature.)
I remember complaining wildly about how field cameramen had trouble keeping to themselves at events like parades and some sports. I would say something about it here, especially how television had managed to document the Tours de France less painfully in years past. (I could be wrong, but still...) It occurred to me how accidents like the knockdown of the cyclist come to be.
In order to fill the screen with a close shot of a competitor or performer, you have to either zoom in tight, get closer to the subject, or some combination of the two. The advantages of getting closer to the subject are greater depth-of-field (especially when you can clearly see other subjects in the background), and a greater feeling of immediacy (from the wider perspective and from the camera movements). The obvious problem is that the camera is now more intrusive.
It took a semester of Photo and a thought inspired by Léon: The Professional to arrive at this. About a third into the movie, Léon imparts a bit of industry standards to Mathilda: a novice assassin uses long-range weaponry, while professionals like himself infiltrate as deeply as possible, often up to knife's reach. Yeah, another comparison of mine of photography to marksmanship—professionals work close.
Trying out Opera's web browser. It does a lot of things differently from Netscape and Internet Explorer. One notable difference is Opera's use of the mouse. By simply holding a button and making a motion, you can do things such as open a browsing tab, reload a page, move through a session (which can be saved and loaded later), and other basic tasks. These would normally be done through toolbars or contextual menus on other browsers. The rest of the interface is highly customizable, much more so than other browsers. It's almost shameful how friendly Opera is in comparison.
However, there are also differences in how the pages are laid out. Some of the layout quirks that make pages look fine in other browsers don't always work in Opera. I would imagine that the converse is also true. That's the tricky thing about standards—everyone has their own interpretation.
I'm going to try this for a while.
Once I was off the bus to Penetencia Creek, everything was fun. Many of the first- and second- generation band members were there. I did miss Chaunte's arrival, which I was looking forward to. Seems her presence (her daughter's maybe?) was troubling to some. The least I could have done was be another comforting voice—she has worn her welcome with some of our disagreeable companions. She had left by the time I came (late) and noticed the annual softball game had begun.
It had been two years since I did anything similar, and all of a sudden I was catching, batting, and running. My right knee took a shot when I ran over a bump in the near outfield after a sprint to first. It's doing fine now, which I am thankful for. I did okay considering, but I couldn't help noticing how dangerous Warren was on field. He's been playing league for a while, along with Tony and Andrew, and he clearly had something to show for it. Nancy or Kim's friend did well at shortstop as well. Regardless of the scores, we were all a little worn—ready for a burger and lively conversation.
Around night, we headed down to 4th Street Garage to catch the Downtown fireworks show. Like always, the top floor is an ideal (if breezy) spot to watch from, being high in the air as it is. I decided to try out my camera equipment on the light shows. Unfortunately, only one roll made it through with exposures—the other didn't load properly in the darkness. Of course, only after processing will I know if I even used proper technique for such a tricky lighting situation (night sky near sunset with city light ambience, fireworks of various intensities and decay patterns). For the sake of my skills, I hope I did things right.
I'll get back with photos soon.
A man came in the store and asked some questions regarding a business idea he has. Seemed interesting, but in the few minutes we were talking, I raised a few points that he hadn't yet considered. It made me wonder how viable his plans were (I thought he needed a little help in the thought department; he also seemed a little shady).
I directed some of his more sensitive questions to Robyn. I don't know how much more information was tossed around, but we ended up with his business card. He runs a fairly decent business, it seems. My wondering then turned to what kind of strategies he was employing in our conversation. Perhaps he knew much more than he let on, and was simply gauging my expertise. Perhaps he is truly deceptive, and had entirely different intentions in mind. Perhaps he really has no clue how to go about his scheme, and depended on my honest answering. My influence on him has probably passed.
As for myself, I'm still convinced that I need to develop my business savvy. As things go right now, I'm committed to being trustworthy while retaining some measure of skepticism. I don't plan on yet having to strategically misinform and/or mislead others in order to achieve my goals—I fear that I am late with this aspect of my dealings.
Almost missed out on Richard Cheese (guest-)musicking on Last Call. I'm trying to find his new album Tuxicity, which I forgot to grab from Hot Topic last time.
I first heard his work at one of Dave's parties—he worked at Rasputin Records or someplace, and knew all about minorstream acts like Cheese. One problem I had with his first album was the "patchwork" sound of the accompaniment. Supposedly, he's accompanied by a lounge combo (mostly a piano, jazz guitar, string bass, xylophone, and drumset), but it sounds a lot like midrange MIDI with no attention paid to nuance-level controls. I apologize to them if its really just a pristine, tight recording/engineering job. Or perhaps I desired more of a big band-style arrangement...I don't remember, really.
You know how Train's song Drops of Jupiter sounds like a modern take on Hey Diddle, Diddle?, Well, imagine that Radiohead made an entire album out of fairy tale- and nursery rhyme-inspired material. You're imagining Hail to the Thief.
It took me a while to get over the initial awe to focus long enough on the lyrics, but that's what I'm getting out of the album. Enough of the songs have a harrowing pace about them—anticipations are stretched long here. Otherwise, Radiohead's compositions become more free-sounding with each album. In this way, Hail to the Thief expands on their collection of masterworks.
There is also a fair share of political dissent, passion and pain, as well as the poetic stuff mentioned earlier. Few acts today take as much care to tie together so many memes. Fewer still can do so in the progressive fashion that typifies Radiohead.
Some recent articles about memory prosthetics—artificial memory aids/replacements—make me wonder just how much processing power we can potentially use or ever need.
I believe that the ceiling is dependent on how many entities use electronics and technologies and to what degree. By entities, I include individual people, groups of them (for business, entertainment, research), creations of ours used as agents, anything else we deem deserving, and anything beyond these which deems itself deserving. We use technology for communication with others (this journal is a prime example) and with ourselves (memory prosthetics). We use it to extend our cognition and imagination, to entertain, to protect and defend, to increase our abilities, to predict, and many other things.
As the technology-capable population approaches that of the total population, we'll see an exponential increase in the amount of technology needed. Despite this, it is entirely likely that we can calculate the volume needed to satisfy our technological needs. Taking into account improvements in electronic efficiency as well as potential wasteful products, are there enough terrestrial resources to handle such an immense volume?
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