Invasion

So, as promised, here's another idea for a game.
     This one takes advantage of the wii platform, but could also work on the xbox Kinect, or the ps3's new motion control system. It's a formula that has been used on the wii already, but not to good effect.
Basically, the game is a rail shooter, in the style of Time Crisis, but with several improvements on the formula, and particularly improvements on what (I believe) the wii has seen so far in the genre.
     First of all, let me roll into atmosphere, the flavor of it. Not because it's the most important aspect, certainly, but because the flavor makes the other elements seem more tangible. The game is set in a science-fiction universe. It's a mildly playful style, bright and colorful. The story starts in a liquor store, where the hero is working as a clerk. Large booming sounds reverberate outside, a low rumble fills the sky, and shadows creep across the street. The hero steps out from behind the counter, and dashes into the street, in time to see an alien spacecraft filling the skies. In a rush, pods smash into the ground, and burst open, with alien marines dashing out and instantly vaporizing several nearby humans. The hero runs backward into the liquor store, and crawls under the counter, where a pistol is laying next to the alarm button. The hero grabs the pistol, just as one of the aliens enters the liquor store. In six shots, the alien is dead, and the hero is out of bullets. The alien has dropped a gun, however, and the hero runs to pick it up. The hero goes into the streets and battles through aliens and machines and the chaos of humans in terror to make it home to their family. 
     So, hopefully, that flavor enticed you enough to listen to some mechanical talk. Anyway, here's the deal: the problem with rail shooters is that they are essentially the same thing as shooting gallery games. Normally, it is a short sequence of running, during which you have no control, followed by a short section of shooting, then your character runs again. Here's a key difference for the shooter I am proposing bears several differences, primarily in that structure there. The player is given much more control over their character, using the nunchuck. Firstly, the hero is in control of hiding behind cover. Holding the Z button raises the hero up from behind cover. Moving behind cover automatically reloads the hero's gun. There are two other buttons on the nunchuck that come into play: firstly, the c-button, which is used to change weapons. The key to that is that to press the c button more or less requires you to release Z, moving you into cover, which is the only place you can change weapons. The other button on the nunchuck that matters is the analogue stick. Rail shooters always lock the player into one single line of sight: forward. The analogue stick is used to turn the hero's field of view, a total of ninety degrees in all directions, and when the stick is released, it moves to a neutral center. What it means is that the player feels more in control of their play, and the gameplay becomes more immersive.The player can also move their camera and shoot during all of the moving portions. They are playing at all times, which is important. It helps blur the line between rail shooter and first-person-shooter. A lot of players hesitate to play rail-shooters because they feel that the experience is lacking compared to a first-person-shooter because of the difference between movement, and the length of time waiting for action to resume.
     At the beginning of each chapter, the player is given the option of choosing their load-out for the trip. They will always have the pistol they stole from the first alien, which does not run out of ammo. They will also have two slots for other guns. The hero can gather more guns as they fight through their adventure, sometimes by shooting certain enemies, sometimes by finding them behind cover, and other things like that.
    One last thing that is missing from rail shooters is the feeling of choice. Fortunately, the mechanics I'm suggesting make it possible to split the track that the player is on. When the hero is in a running portion, occasionally two arrows will flash on screen, suggesting two paths. The player will use the analogue stick to choose a path, and the story will go in that direction. There may also be instances where the arrows will not flash on screen, but holding the stick during a run will change paths anyway, allowing for secrets.
     I think I could write more on this game, actually, but for now, it is 2:24 at night, and I am incredibly sleepy.  If you are interested in hearing more, let me know in the comments!

P.s. If you decided to create this game, please let me know, and please give me credit for the original concept. If someone does make it, I'll do my very best to help you publicize, and I'd even be willing to collaborate, if needed. Thanks!

The ghost's castle

     So, I spend a lot of time thinking about games, and about game design. Maybe you've noticed. Anyway I've decided that since I never seem to have the time to actually execute any games, and haven't really had time to create anything playable (after all, I barely take the time to update this blog) I've decided to share some ideas for games and see if the ideas get picked up by anyone with the time and knack. So, here we go!

     The first concept is an exploration-based adventure game. The protagonist has been kidnapped by otherworldlies, say fairies, or spirits, and dropped into an old castle, drifting in and endless space, to teach the hero a lesson about his/her life. The castle is vast, with gardens, towers, grand halls, and a multitude of varied rooms. Many, maybe most of these rooms, are empty when the hero first enters them. But, after solving a few puzzles in some of the fuller rooms, the hero finds the first of several masks. The masks resemble people from his life, possibly through one characteristic, definitely not through facial emulation, because that's creepy.  Anyway, The hero finds the mask, and puts it on, and in doing so, the castle changes before them. Suddenly, rooms that were empty are furnished, there are more puzzles to solve, and from time to time, people pass through the halls.
     The hero tries to address the people in the halls, but the figures just carry out their actions. They act out scenes from the hero's life, moments of regret, choices made, etc. They are all dressed in fancy clothing, ball gowns,  suits, and masks, as if they are all attending a masquerade, which they are. All of the figures are fairies, or spirits, playing their part in the heroes' past. As the hero progresses through the flashbacks and puzzles, he or she eventually finds another mask, which reveals a different set of full rooms, events and the like. The hero eventually finds a total of say, seven masks. Each one reveals a different set of rooms and puzzles, and helps the hero understand their mistakes, and eventually, to come to understand what they must do to set things right.
     The important thing about the masks is that they don't change the castle, they just reveal what is there. From the very start, just about all rooms are accessible, only one or two doors are ever locked, and they are unlockable by things hidden by the masks.

Now, I just realized that I had planned on spouting out about three games in this one post, but since I ended up writing a whole big chunk about that one idea, I've decided to break this up into a few different posts. So, expect the second in a week or so.

P.s. If you decided to create this game, please let me know, and please give me credit for the original concept. If someone does make it, I'll do my very best to help you publicize, and I'd even be willing to collaborate, if needed. Thanks!

The Haunt: Finale!

     Okay, dear readers, the Haunted Library is finally over! So, as promised, I'm doing one more post about it, looking back on what I would (and likely will) do differently next year. Now, you may have heard the phrase "pics, or it didn't happen," as it turns out, none of us remembered this, so we have no proof that we ever performed this haunt. I have a few phone pictures of a few props being built, which I will put on a page HERE with the maze, but without pictures of everything installed in the library, I'll excuse your skepticism. As for the video I mentioned, It exists, but is really just five minutes of black with occasional flickers of faces and light. it's pretty lousy, so I've decided not to put it up.
     Now for the good news. On Friday, we put the haunted house up starting at about ten am, and finishing at about 5:10 pm. With a total of four actors in the haunt, we managed to scare the daylights out of a total of 378 guests, and earned as many dollars for the library to buy books with! Or, in other words, the Haunt was a huge success! While we didn't manage to get everything working that we wanted to, we put together enough of a haunt that people were going through more than once, and had a fantastic time.

Room #5: The Pumpkin Patch

As the Guests exit the forest, they make a hard left turn into the pumpkin patch, but not before a Giant's Shadow pounces across a wall to their right, standing ten feet tall, and chasing them into the pumpkin patch.
First, the guests pass through a gate, fashioned to look like a large jack-o-lantern, and as they walk through it's mouth, they find themselves in a graveyard, overgrown with pumpkins. There's a stone wall running along one side, with small pumpkins resting on top. And a scarecrow waits at the end of the path with a bowl of candy for the guests.

This room, obviously, is where the giant pumpkin from my earlier post will be living, with a giant candle inside of it. all made out of cardboard. This room is much brighter and more playful than the others, mostly orange and green throughout the room.
The scarecrow will be an actor, who can decide to scare children if he wants to. The biggest isssue of this room is building pumpkins. See, with our budget of approximately $1, buying a bunch of pumpkins and carving them into jack-o-lanterns is out of the question. So, we've made a few pumpkins  in three dimensions out of cardboard,and we're in the process of creating a few groups of pumpkins in two-dimensions. The tombstones are made out of foam I already had, and have cut into stones.
It's a simple room, with a lot of building to create a well-dressed scene. A lot of this has to be built in the space, which makes this room a bit of a challenge, since we have about four hours (Hopefully we'll get more time) in the space to set up.
Now that I've filled you in on how everything should look, I'll be filling you in on how some of it is being built, and hopefully, I'll end with a video walk-through on Saturday.

Room #4: The Forest.

Okay, readers, let me level with you, this post took so long to get to you because two days ago, I almost changed this room. Let me tell you why. This room is a big u-turn shape designed to look like a haunted forest. A large group of trees encircle the guests, and arch their branches high overhead, where an owl looms, and several crows grumble, caw, and crack-wise. Meanwhile, guests are hit with a mysterious gust of wind, and something lurks just beyond the trees.
As you can see on the MAP the forest is one of the larger areas in the haunt. The downside of that is, that room will require a lot of scenery, and I honestly (still) have concerns about us getting enough trees in there to make it spooky. Originally, we were going to make the trees out of butcher paper, and create faces on them, like the trees from the "Wizard of Oz". Here's the issue with that: Each of those trees would need some sort of solid structure running from toe to tip, and to be honest, I'm on too tight of a budget to purchase lumber to brace the insides. So, I decided to cut the entire scene from the haunt, and asked my family for other suggestions. Then my old man decided that he had found the plan to build the forest, and help himself out as well, the old coot. So, we tore down old branches from our mulberry tree in the back yard, and he's taken it on himself to turn those branches into trees. Hopefully, he knows what he's doing.
Meanwhile, I've got to make sure that the rest of this forest is spooky!
There will be at least one person in the forest to do some old-fashioned scaring, and to try some other tricks as well. Firstly, I've modified an Airzooka to sit on a solid base, and be fired remotely with a cord. Which means I can hide the airzooka in a bush somewhere, and not let guests know where the gust of wind has come from.
Meanwhile, overhead, a pair of crows are sitting in some branches, cawing and making a few jokes. It's a simple matter of a couple of cardboard silhouettes and some decent sound design, which is being handled by y brother.
Then, they turn the corner, under a spooky moon  and and actor either lurks in the forest, or leaps out at the guests, depending on the age and bravado of the guests. In all likelihood, this is probably me in a simple costume. Then, they turn one last corner into the last room of the haunt.

Room # 3: The Cave

Not a photograph of MY cave, but how cool would that be, right?

    So, after our intrepid adventurers are spewed out of  a magical vortex, they find themselves inside a dark and intimidating cavern. The first chamber of the cavern plays with their imagination, as something tickles across their faces, and something else pops beneath their feet. Is this cave filled with bugs?
 Actually, both of these are pretty classic haunted house tricks. The first portion of the cave uses darkness to convince the guests that something more is happening, when really, they're walking on a bit of bubble wrap, and string  is tickling their face. Classic.

The Second Chamber of the cavern is a mysterious room filled with mirrors. the room will have four mirrors arranged in an array, lit only with blacklight. On each mirror will be a different ghost, which glows under the blacklight. Everything in the room will be covered in heavy cobwebs, hinting at what's to come.
The inside of the cave itself will mostly be black plastic, forming an uncomfortably low ceiling. Kids will be fine, but parents my have to duck, creating discomfort. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but creating unpleasant atmosphere is half of what a haunted house is about. A building full of people jumping out is startling, but it isn't scary. To create fear, there needs to be buildup, and claustrophobia is a simple fear to play off of.

The third chamber of the cavern is through a black curtain. the ceiling opens up here, but only to make room for a giant black widow, standing across the top of the pathway! The spider stands above the guests, rocking back and forth above their heads, as it's children hang from the walls.
The spider itself is going to be made primarily from chicken wire on a frame,, and wrapped with paper mache. (my goodness, I am using so much paper mache!) The real trick of the spider is that the guests are walking at that time between two bookshelves that are already in the library. Each bookcase is about four feet high, and will serve as a resting place for four of the spider's legs, so that the spider stands directly above the path. The lurching motion of the spider is created by a modification of the "Flying Crank Ghost". This link doesn't go to a how-to, unfortunately, they're harder to find than I remember. Leave A comment If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, and I'll write a post about it
 I'm using the same mechanism, but modifying it to  use only two points, and rocking the body back and forth. I may also attach the spider's front two legs to the crank, to add more motion to the scene.
One concern I have with this spider is that it may be actually too scary. for example, I am horrified by giant spiders The movie "Eight Legged Freaks" is technically a comedy, but if i watch that movie, I don't sleep. Maybe I'm just a wiener, but I am pretty nervous about scarring children. We'll see.

Room #2: The Vortex!

After guests are greeted by our friend the gypsy, and threatened by the ghostly statue, they are transported through a magical vortex, and catapulted into a spooky adventure!

The vortex is the simplest and most complicated portion of the haunt. It's simple because based on the original concept, we already have all the materials we need. Unfortunately, the more we think on it, the more we realize that it's not as simple as I had hoped.
 Here's the deal, The librarian, (okay, who am I kidding, it's my mum.) Asked my to make a vortex tunnel like this, But without spending any money. Oh good, I love a good challenge. Basically, the idea was to create that same sort of disorienting effects, without all of the big equipment. So, the Idea I came up with was using a projector to shoot a swirling pattern on the inside of a tube, to create the illusion of swirling movement. I own a cyc, (Aka, big damn piece of fabric) that I could use for the walls, by folding it in half and shining the projector on it, everything should work out okay. However, as you can see on the MAP in yellow, the vortex portion is very narrow, and very long, which is not ideal for projection.
If a patron puts their hand in the wrong spot, they could potentially block out a large portion of the vortex effect, and leave themselves in a long boring room. That, of course is simply no fun. So, our current plan is to try to find a second projector, and divide the vortex into two portions, one end per projector, and project coordinated pictures across both sheets from above.
As for what we'll be projecting, I used Gamemaker  to create a randomly generated spiraling monstrosity. It swirls a bunch of green particles outward around a central point. Hopefully, this will create the unbalance we're looking for. If not, at the very least, it should look pretty cool, and dazzle those little turds anyway ;)

The Seance

Okay, I mentioned that I would be doing more in-depth walkthroughs of each room, and talk about some of the effects and techniques I am planning on using in each. Here, dear readers, is the first.

---------------------------------------------->Spoiler Alert<----------------------------------------------

(I realize very few people reading will actually be visiting the haunted house, but spoilers matter!)

First of all, there is the line. We're doing a rope leading to a large, stone entryway made out of Styrofoam and fabric. The reason for that is to lock out any light, and to allow "Lurch" to gather tickets from guests. One of the problems with our space is that we only have access through one door. Because of this, people will have to criss-cross through the seance room, and out the door. The entryway allows us to hold groups back while other groups exit. The seance allowed us a nice excuse for them, plot-wise to be returning through a room, something you normally don't do in a haunted house. In the seance room, guests will encounter a gypsy woman (played by my sister, Rian) who is swirling around a crystal ball. Overhead, a chandelier swings ominously, and there are pillar candles all around. The room (hopefully) is hung with rich tapestries, and feels heavy with magic.

The candles, obviously, can't be holding a real flame, and I sure as heck don't have the budget to purchase led candles for the amount I am looking for. So, sacrificing a candle-like flicker, I designed a little trick to make lots of pillar candle clusters for pretty cheap. The idea is to use cardboard tubes to fake the body of the candles, glue them into bundles, and hollow out the bottom of the bundle, and place a single low-voltage lightbulb in there. the light glows up through the now-disguised tube, and nobody's the wiser!

Since the seance doesn't have much spooking going along with it, I thought I'd pair it with the next area, the Ghost's Warning! This room comes from another awkwardness about the room. the third area, the vortex, is set up to be a straight shot down to the back of the room, so that guests work their way forward after that. But to get to the starting point of the vortex, they first had to travel behind the librarian's desk, a short hallway, without much room to manuver. It left us without much space to do any tricks, except on top of the desk, which had to be isolated, to keep them from messing with things. What My brother came up with was spooky warning from a ghost, behind a wall of white plastic. There's a plastic available that's semi-transparent, almost milky, that should work well for this. We're planning on doing a Pepper's Ghost Using the library computer and a pane of glass to project an effect in front of a life cast of my brother's face to create the illusion that the face is on fire, and murmuring warnings to turn back. 

Overhead, we're putting a our-foot fluorescent light with a shade on it. The shade will be punctured a billion or so times to scatter small dots of light across the area, without really brightening it much.

Those are the first two areas of the haunted house, visible on the MAP in red and orange. Tune in soon for a glimpse at room number three, The VORTEX! Dun Dun DUNNN!

Pumpkin Rising!

     So! Haunted House Update! The design for the haunted house has been through about a hundred re-drafts, but we've settled on a design, and I've gotten started on a few Props. Included In those props, in case you hadn't noticed, is a giant pumpkin, which I managed to make for the cost of glue. It's hard to get scale out of that picture, but it's about five feet tall, and made entirely out of cardboard from a dumpster next door. Anyway, I've gotten sidetracked, I decided that now that all the design is done, I'd talk with you lot about the challenges specific to this haunt, and how I'm working to handle them.

     First of all, a lot of haunted houses depend on gore to scare people. It's hit or miss, usually, since some people are completely grossed out by the blood, but a lot of people are desensitized to gore. Either way, it's not applicable here, because my haunted house is taking place on an elementary school campus. I'd never do blood with elementary kids, that's just wrong, and the principal of the school asked for us to avoid it anyway. I took that, and added a few more rules for myself:
1: No blood
2: Don't show any scenes of violence, that is, nothing in the haunt should involve humans hurting humans.
3: Spooky, not Scary

Those are the rules. As it turns out, those nix a LOT of classic haunted house gags. the problem I face is that I have an audience ranging in ages from five to ten. Anything I could do that would be genuinely scary to the fifth graders could permanently scar the kindergartners. Trust me, I had that happen to me at a fair. I still don't like using chainsaws... TANGENT! sorry. Because I'm aimed at a young group I had to go for spooky, in the style of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. There will still be scares, but i'm making sure that none of the scares are outside of human judgement. Any time a big scare will happen, it'll be a classic jump out and yell "BOO!" That way, we can make sure not to scare any first-graders so bad that they wet themselves.

     So, with those rules In mind, I'm going to drop a room list on you all, and I'll go into greater depth on them over the next few days.

First, a seance, where a gypsy will greet our guests, and forsee a dangerous adventure in their future!

Secondly, a Warning from a mysterious ghost, the classic "Turn Back!"

Third, a swirling vortex, as visitors are thrown into a dangerous otherworld

fourth, a mysterious cave, where they will face haunted mirrors, and a Giant Black Widow

Fifth, a Haunted forest, with skeletal trees, talking crows, and something lurking in the distance...

sixth, a spooky pumpkin patch, complete with gravestones, and a scarecrow handing out candy.

then they are cast back into the seance room, where the gypsy congratulates them on their survival, and gives them the boot.

That's the narrative for the haunted house, nothing too scary, but there's more depth to it than there seems, and I'll be getting into that in a few upcoming posts.

A poem.... er... paragraph?

     So, readers I am working hard on the haunted house, and have a meeting coming up for the Christmas play I am putting up. But for now, no interesting developments on those yet.

Instead, I'm going to share a pinch of fiction I just whipped up.

I read a prompt on Google+ from Lee Shelly Allen, suggesting that I write a poem based on five elements of a T.S. Elliot Play. Those Elements were: 

The Burial of the Dead
A Game of Chess
The Fire Sermon
Death by Water
What the Thunder Said

I completely forgot that a poem was the goal, and accidentally wrote a pair of paragraphs instead. So, here they are!

     The young man clenched the cold rail of the balcony, sliding side to side, and watching the patterns left in the drops of water there. The rain pressed down on him, heavy as the decisions ahead of him. The clouds flashed above him, casting his shadow straight down. the roar of the thunder started him out of his thoughts. He took a moment to view his surroundings. He was a quarter of a mile above the street, looking over the city he now ruled. Another burst of thunder, this time from over the bridge, reminded him of how it had all happened. The bridge was still smoking, dripping rubble and steel from the terrorist bomb that had killed hundreds, including the old mayor. Like so many others, she had died trapped in her car, after the bridge had collapsed, sunken in the river. The young man swirled the water on the rail again, and it made him feel ill.

     He was pulled from his thoughts by a shout from an advisor, calling him inside from the glass door of the balcony. The young man put on a strong face, and walked inside, his suit clinging to his skeleton. He was shuffled into a tall chair by a fireplace, and several advisors began to talk to him, planning the memorial. He tried to listen, tried to show his best side, but he was lost in his head. The flames held his eyes, whispering, “you’re not ready, boy.” They were right, of course, he knew he was too young for what was coming to him. Then the thunder roared again, as if to cry out “nonsense! You are greatness!” He didn’t know what to believe. This job was supposed to be an opportunity, but suddenly, he felt like he was trapped, with crushing pressure around him. The pressure pushed through the windshield, and his lungs filled with water. The fire popped, and he was back in the meeting.

Hopefully you enjoyed that. Also, feel free to follow me on Google Plus!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

So, dear readers, here we are again, at an apologetic post about accidental hiatus. Actually, instead of that, I'll fill you in on a project I am working on as a commission.
I've been asked to assemble a haunted house for the fall festival at Little Lake Elementary school. Those of you who have been reading for awhile will remember that Little Lake is the school where my mum works as a librarian. So, okay, a commission is a bit of an exaggeration. Anyway, the haunted house will be a lot of fun, and I plan on filling you lot in on how things are going, and how to make some of the projects I'll be assembling.
Also going on at about this time, I have been hired to build the set for a musical called "Scrooge's Christmas". In this case, hired is not an exaggeration. I'm hoping that both of these projects will give me lots to share with you, and I imagine they will! Thanks for your patience, dear readers!

Attention to detail

     Today, Jen decided that she wanted to try watching dr who, which, understandably rocks my socks. She mentioned her concerns to me about changing lead actor partway through, and I spent a good little bit trying to convey why it worked. That of course, got me thinking about what makes Dr. Who such a great show. So, I will try to explain what it is, and it's something that happens in another of my favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother: Continuity and attention to detail. How I Met Your Mother isn't quite as good at it, but it works out really well in both, so here I go, trying to explain it.

     Dr Who spans millions of years and millions of planets, and when the timelines line up, they never let you forget. The Writers are so good at remembering everything they've written already that they can drop tiny little notes all throughout the story to let you know they're paying attention. In my mind, they have a small room somewhere, with sixteen filing cabinets sitting in the middle, two bookcases full of history books, and walls covered in sheets of paper, post-it notes and string, and in the middle is a small table with a lamp, where they write. At any moment during their writing, they can look up, grab a string, follow it through three story archs, and find the joke they were looking for. Usually, The things they give are a subtle little joke, or a tiny nod at something that's going to happen next season. That, I guess is what I'm getting at, is that they are paying so much attention to what they are doing that they know what will happen two seasons ahead, while a lot of shows seem confounded looking two episodes ahead. Dr, Who has a plan, whether or not they tell us, and if you're paying attention, there are hints, everything is so well mapped out that nothing ever really feels out of place, and That is what makes Dr. Who so great.

Oh, and the time travel, quirkiness, and incredible character-driven story lines, but that's a given, I think. ;)

Thoughts on 3d

     So, today, after much delay, Jen and I found ourselves with an open day. The first time we've really felt like we had a completely free day, so we went ahead and decided to see Harry potter again, this time in Imax 3d!

     Unfortunately, I have trouble shutting off the ole' brain, so I spent some time making observations on 3d movies. First of all, those things are stupidly expensive, too expensive, in my mind, to justify the advantages. Then there's the big issue I have with 3d, which is going to take a bit more explanation.
     The way I look at it, there are two types of 3d elements. First of all, there's the most identifiable type of 3d moment, the "In your face" aspect of 3d. This is of course, the most prominent element, and the most enjoyable sort. Okay, I should clarify that last statement. I personally like a blend of both elements, but when something reaches out and snaps at your face, that's the moment when you feel that it's 3d.
     The other type of 3d element is the subtle one. The subtle one is what gives everything the true depth, the layers of background, characters and foreground. this element is what really gives 3d the feeling of wholeness.
My issue with 3d is this: I don't think anybody is doing it right. There are a few points to be made about this. One, when the in-your face elements are overused, you feel like the 3d is a gimmick. If, on the other hand, the entire movie is done only with the depth element, you will eventually tune it out, and not really get your money's worth.
    Another problem with 3d (yeah, I thought it was two, but now the ball is rolling, so strap in!) is that people are not making movies with 3d in mind. Most of the movies being released in 3d are not created in native 3d, they're being modified into 3d in post-production. What ends up happening (and did happen in harry potter) is that sometimes the movie, the 3d ends up looking like a bad green-screen element. At one point in the movie, Neville sits up right into the camera, filling most of the frame. Meanwhile, because of the 3d editing, neville has been pulled into a foreground level, with oddly sharp edges between himself and the background, like he has been superimposed onto it.
     Finally, on the point of people not making movies specifically with 3d in mind, is focus. In traditional movies, when the director wants you to change depth of field, he shifts the focus of the camera. Often, this is used in a situation where, for example, two characters are having a conversation in the background, while something rests, blurry, in the foreground. Suddenly, the conversation shifts, and with it, the focus, revealing that the blurry mass is actually a gun. Dun Dun DUN! However, in 3d movies, the whole point is to create the illusion that the viewer is in a truly 3d location, which means that their eyes, and not a camera, are in charge of focus. Trying to create the illusion of three-dimensions, without the element of focal control, ruins the illusion entirely. In real life, we can focus our eyes to look at the pistol, and not wait for the camera, but 3d movies don't allow us that.
     Now that I have rambled for a day, I'd like to say that really, the problem with 3d isn't that it is inherently bad, rather, that 3d is like a gun, it's dangerous in the wrong hands.

Hard wine!

I promise, this is not a post about collecting urine.

     Wednesday, after several months of neglect, I remembered about my wine! I took about twenty minutes siphoning the wine through a strainer, and gathered it up in one pot, and two bowls. In total, we ended up with seven and a half quarts of tangy, pungent wine!
     It tastes a lot like grapefruit still, but it's very dry, with a heavy dose of vapor behind it. My mother had about a half of a glass, and three hours later, she mentioned losing her buzz. Apparently, this stuff will knock you on your ass! I've personally only sipped at a few shotglasses full, but afterwards, I definitely breathed some hefty flames! Keep your ears open for my next wine-making project, the plan is to make about twice this amount out of oranges and fresh cranberries!

Random acts of generosity ( I hope)

     Okay, readers, here we go, getting back into the groove of sharing thoughts.
I had an idea earlier this year that I did not get the chance to act on, but I figured since the tap has been dry here for so long, I'd share the idea with you, and ask for your opinions on it.

     I have a chainlink fence, five feet high on all sides of my yard, and for the most part, it does its job well, keeping dogs in and unwanted guests out. However, the chainlink fails in one critical field: Privacy. So, we've been pondering for awhile here about what plant we could grow to cover our fence, and prettify the yard. Local ordinances won't let us replace it with a board fence (there goes the white-picket american dream). Anyway, my idea is this: Plant my front fence with hops and tomatoes. The I could use the hops to try my hand at microbrewing (which is on my to-do list). and as for the tomatoes, that's where the title of this post comes in. I'd like to post a sign that says "Free if you pick them" by the tomatoes, and smaller signs identifying the types of tomato. Tomatoes grow pretty fast, and while they don't fruit all year long, they would cover the fence for a good half of the year, longer if i tend to them well. I think it'd be interesting to see if the neighborhood (and any pedestrians walking by) would stop and pick tomatoes. Maybe I'd leave a pouch full of plastic grocery bags (recycled of course) hanging on the signpost.

     So, readers, what do you think? Is this idea something people would take an interest in? Would the neighbors enjoy the tomatoes, or are people too distrusting? Are there any other concerns I am overlooking? Let me know in the comments section!

Are you still there?

     Oh, dear readers, how I have neglected you! I've been working on this play day and night, and have forgotten, consistently to update this blog for you. I've also forgotten meals, showers and sleep, but now, finally, the show is up and out of my hands! Soon, I will have a great deal of new projects and insights to share with you, I pinky swear! In the meantime, for those of you who live in southern california, come to CARTOON!
     It's a really great show (not to brag) and the cast is doing a fantastic job!

     I've been thinking about playwrighting a lot lately, thanks to the 24-hour play project, as well as all of the analyzing I have been doing of the play I am directing. It's gotten me thinking about what's important in a play, and I've been batting around the idea of a small-cast musical in my head. So, in a shocking first, I have decided to do a poll of my readers, and find out what YOU think is important in a musical!
The Poll is over on the sidebar, probably about..... ----------------------------------------------->
There!
If you decide to select "Other" please post your answer in the comments section of this post. And even if you choose one of the other answers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on musicals!
Thanks, readers!

Susy Homemaker Update!

     So, I'm apparently a few days behind myself when it comes to updating you lot on recent events, so here comes a (slightly late) Homebrew update!
     Thursday, I decided I was tired of looking at our disgusting jug of juice. I won't show you a picture (too nasty) but I will describe it to you. The wine had separated into three distinct layers: on the bottom, a silt made up of zest and pulp and other fine particles (i don't even know), in the middle, the wine, which was clear and beautiful, and on the top, frothy foam, thick like sea foam, with bloated raisins floating in it. Nothing glamorous here, folks. Anyway, we decided that the thing to do was to try to siphon out the good layer, and tried to filter the silt from the other layers.
     The siphoning went well. We pulled probably a gallon and a half of wine from the jug, and had another gallon of silty goodness leftover. The silt, we tried to filter through paper towels, coffee filters, a sieve, anything. Nothing would filter it. Everything clogged up in half a second, so we abandoned the silt and focused on the wine.
     Now, let's talk about this wine. It tastes almost exactly like grapefruit juice still, except for the vapors in the back of your throat from the alcohol. Oh, and the fact that it is six hundred times more sour than anything i have ever sipped before. It's literally one of the most sour liquids I've ever consumed, it makes me take on a literal sour-face, and I eat lemons for fun. We rinsed the jug, and poured the wine back in there, but we decided to add a bit more sugar, about one cup (packed) of brown sugar. Then, we shoved it back into our canning cupboard, and ran away.

     Meanwhile, on the gardening front, I am sad to report that approximately all of our delicious hot peppers have fallen victim to... THE GOPHER!  -Dun Dun DUNNNN! This is the most sinister gopher I have ever encountered, using guerrilla warfare to taunt me. He's taken out my hot peppers,five out of six of my bell peppers, and pretty much everything related to squash. Seriously, this is one evil little bugger.

The war rages on.

     That said, he seems to have an aversion to tomatoes, so those things are going NUTS! We have a couple dozen tomato plants all popping out little greenies! YAY! before long, I'll be canning tomatoes like crazy, in about a hundred different ways, which I will tell you more about as I get there.

     Okay, that's the Suzie Homemaker Update! Does anyone have any suggestions for my homesteading projects? I'd really appreciate any advice on Baron VonGopher, and how to get him out of my garden! Thanks, dear readers!

24 hour play project, Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the stress!

     This weekend, my theater company posed a challenge to it's members: Starting at seven PM on Friday night, and finishing at seven PM Saturday night, members were asked to write, cast rehearse, memorize, and finally perform three different plays. I'm proud to say, everyone rose to the challenge, and had an amazing mount of fun doing so!
     Here's how it went: at Six Pm Friday night, everyone met, then signed up for, and were assigned jobs. three people were given the job of writer, three directors, about 18 actors and about half a dozen technitions. At seven o'clock, the writers were given three parameters that each script had to include, that way, writiers couldn't bring in anything they had been working on. Our three parameters were:

1. The line "that's what she said"
2. A small wooden box (which was pulled from the props area)
3. The sounds of an alarm going off (which was also provided to them.

     From that moment until 4 am (9 hours), the writers were in a flurry, locked in a room with a 48-cup pot of coffee (which lasted us the 24-hours). Meanwhile, on the stage, the techies had begun their work. They faced two challenges, one of which are inherent to the 24-hour play project, and one that comes from our regular season. The challenge from the play-project was that they needed to prepare sets and hang lights for all of the shows, but they didn't know what the shows would be! So, they had to do lighting and scenery designed to be as open and versatile as possible, with only a few mumbled hints from the writers (who you just didn't talk to, don't you know how busy they are?!?!)
     What that really meant was developing brilliant repertory plots (that is, designs equipped to be adapted to multiple shows). We had a guy named Topher from way out of town, from about an hour away to do lights with us. It was really interesting for everyone to see how Topher handled lighting in a new space, and I'm sure other people learned a fair bit about design from him. (I had honestly never considered footlights in this space, but they were Fantastic!)
     Meanwhile the set team was trying to mask everything off, to keep the audience from seeing all of the backstage business. The set crew had to deal with all sorts of hassles like that, but they had another challenge, presented to them by our regular season. See, we're also putting up two shows this year, and both of those shows have their own sets. So, not only did they have some flats screwed to the stage, bolted in place and immobile, but they also had almost all of the other stock materials attached to each other and in storage as the other set. Basically, they had about four flats and a big bunch of curtains to make the theater into a useful space. They did. In fact, they (okay, I started it while nobody was looking) took a door frame off of one of the sets and clamped it into the set. (Don't worry, I put it back when we were done!)
     Eventually, at four AM, the directors arrived at the theatre. The writers handed over three brand-new scripts to the directors, who had about an hour and a half to read the scripts and cast them from the collection of actors we had. There were a lot of debates between the directors, bickering over who got who, and so forth. They decided their casts and sent emails to every cast member, with a copy of their script attached. The actors then printed out their scripts, and arrived at 6:45 Am to start rehearsals.
     Then for the next twelve hours, the shows were on a rotating rehearsal schedule, sharing the stage, cramming lines, studying, studying, studying, and rehearsing for hours on end. Oh my goodness, I didn't mention the countdown! Over our heads, all day, starting at seven PM, a gigantic countdown loomed over our heads, ticking down the time until the curtain opened.
     At seven Pm, the audience had all arrived, the countdown reached zero, and the curtain opened. Three shows performed, and did an amazing job. (okay, again, I totally flopped, after 24 hours without sleep, I completely forgot EVERY line I had. EMBARRASSING!) Anyway, Everyone (but me) did an amazing job, and the audiences loved it. Then, we struck the shows in a half an hour, and everyone ran home as fast as possible to immediately crash into bed and fall asleep.
     The next day, a few people met up, and there was not a single person who had anything else to talk about. There was even a movement to start another 24 hour play project that night. All in all, it was a huge success, everyone learned something, the world received three new plays, and everyone went home happy and tired. It was a huge success, and everyone really enjoyed it. Topher also brought in a very nice camera with a timer, and recorded a timelapse of the entire process. Hopefully, sometime in the next couple weeks, I'll be able to get my hands on the timelapse video, and I will post it here for you all to see!
     So, dear readers, what do you think of this project? Excited? Curious? Tell me in the comments section!

Practical Vs. Visual

     SO. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but I for one, am very fond of the genre "Steampunk". I like the anachronism, I like the brass, I like the grit, grime, and grease. Seriously, I'm nuts for Steampunk. Unfortunately, if what I have seen from everyone on the internet (okay, maybe not everyone, but the more influential players) I have completely different interests in what Steampunk is. See, When I think of Steampunk, I think of the industrial revolution, when practicality reigned, and aesthetics came after the function. Giant, powerful machines, designed with elegance in their mechanisms, form following function.
     However, it seems to me that the prevalent interest in the broader Steampunk audience is more in style. As far as my eyes can tell, most Steampunk enthusiasts focus on sticking bits of gears onto just about anything, regardless of whether or not the gears serve any function. To me, that's sortof the opposite of what the Steampunk movement is about, I understand that gears, brass and leather all look great together, I love that look,   but I think that it's an insult to steam machines to tack mechanical elements onto things for looks. Old steam machines are about the most efficient use of energy and material. I mean, look at THIS! Smooth fluid movement, not a part wasted, nothing aesthetic, just efficiency! That is what Steampunk is, a celebration of design, of human ingenuity, and top hats!

EDIT: At the request of a reader, I slapped together some picture of my preferences on steampunk! Check that out HERE.

OOPS.

     Dear blog readers, It seems i have been tragically neglecting you. I'd like to offer, not an apology, but rather an excuse, because i am childish.
     This week was the first week of my theatre company's summer season, and it has been a very exciting week. This summer is the first time we have been financially in a position to do TWO plays! We're doing Steve Yockey's Cartoon!, and David Auburn's Proof. But more excitingly for me, I am directing Cartoon!, and it is my first time directing! It's very exciting, and I am learning a lot, so with any luck, it will give me some hilarious insights to pass on to you, dear readers. This week, however, it is just giving me ulcers. ;)
     Thanks for your patience, I will try to have something exciting for you in the next week or so!

Fixing School Libraries.

     I've spent a couple of days now over the last couple of weeks working with my mother at the library where she works. It's an elementary school library, which means that at the end of the year, most of the work she is doing is handling, cataloging, and storing textbooks. What I've realized while I was helping her is that the entire textbook system is completely ridiculous, and needs to be re-vamped. My brother has written on the subject of the broken education subject HERE, and while I agree that incorporating games into the curriculum is a great way to encourage students to learn, I think that starting with the books they are learning from is the way to go about fixing education. So, here I go.
     Next week, Google is launching its Chromebook, a laptop based on the new Chrome OS. I've been using a Chromebook to update this blog since I started it, and today, it gave me an idea for a complete new infrastructure for books. The basic idea is that Chromebooks operate entirely in the cloud, using only the internet to do its work, rather than depending on built in storage space.
     Every year, the library spends more than $200 per student on textbooks. Now, let's imagine that rather than spending that money every year, the school invested it into Chromebooks, which cost about $200 each. The laptops would be bar coded, inventoried, and checked out, exactly the same as the textbooks, but the secret is that the books would be designed specifically for the purpose of education. Every Chromebook is designed to link to a central server on campus, and on that server is the entire curriculum, every textbook is digitized, the workbooks are webpages, the homework comes in emails, and multiple choice grades itself.  Students would keep their laptops through the course of the year, charging them in class, and if the teacher requires it, using their 8-hour battery overnight for homework time. The Chromebooks are designed with built-in 3G connectivity, which means that students who cannot afford internet at home could register for the 3G through the schools, so they could do homework.
     Two years ago, the elementary school upgraded it's math curriculum, to the latest standards. (I'll talk about the quality of the standards another time) The school had to buy entirely new books for every student they had. If, however, they were using Chromebooks, all the curriculum update would take is the installation of new software on the central server, saving literally tons of paper every time the curriculum is updated. On top of that, the next year, the publisher told the school district that the math they had used for the year wasn't the right set, and sent them an entirely new set of papers! That's another ton of paper wasted, as well as more trouble for librarians! With Chromebooks, if there was a mistake like that, The solution would waste, at most a case of CDs, and at least, nothing, because the update could come over the internet, just like updates on any program on your computer.
     A lot of people worry about students (especially elementary age) being on the internet. That's entirely reasonable, but the Chromebook can be developed to have network controls to keep students on a safe-network, so that the computer can only connect to the school's server. Or, pending parent sign-off, etc. the book could be allowed onto the full internet, or have various levels of parental control allowed.
     Another interesting aspect of the Chromebooks is the centralized login. To log on to Chrome OS, you enter in your Gmail address and password, and all of your information is linked to that. For this system, the students (and teachers, staff, etc.) would each have a login account, which would store grades, homework, bookmarks (literal bookmarks in the e-books, for example) it could have links to a student's favorite educational games attached to the account, or a list of reminders on the home page for upcoming events, or homework. The real advantage of this is that without having to have the student's actual laptop, the parents or teacher of that student can look it up from literally anywhere that there is internet, regardless of whether or not they were using a Chromebook. Students could also use their home computers to do their homework, if one is available. On the other side of that coin, since every laptop is identical, and can all use the same accounts, if a student forgets (or "forgets") their Chromebook at home, the teacher can simply have a few spare laptops in the class. The students can log in and do their work anyway.
     Now, I'm not saying that libraries should be abolished, or that all books should be burned, or anything silly like that. Rather, I'm suggesting that we ditch the business model of replacing books every two years, and only buy books that have a genuine lifespan. If we focused on a system that is built to last rather than being recycled (or sometimes thrown away) every two years, we can focus on the education, and not the money-making. The budget required for books would be cut in half (there would of course need to be some laptops replaced each year) and all of that money could be spent on other things, like after school programs, or art supplies. The Chromebook cloud computing system could make our schools more efficient, less expensive, and more fun for students, and who wouldn't want that?

Homebrewing update #1!

The beaker, sitting in my spice cabinet, bubbling like crazy!

As I showed you last week, I started brewing some homemade grapefruit wine. So, in the interest of keeping you fully up-to-date, I thought i'd throw you an update. Tuesday, I threw a fistful (one lunch-size box) of raisins into the jug, and then put a very ghetto airlock on the jug. The airlock lets the Co2 out of the jug, while preventing air and dust from entering. Basically, it's a cork with a hose running through it. The end of the hose sits in a beaker that I set on a shelf near the mouth of the jug. the water lets the Co2 bubble out, and keeps dust and such out. I am happy to report that the beaker has been happily bubbling ever since! The smell is surprisingly pleasant, a kind of sweet tangy smell, but with a definite smell of fermentation. Things are going great! I figure in about a week, I will move the jug into our canning closet, and let it ferment for a month or two, and bring it out to try it then!

Getting Ahead of Myself.

     As you may remember, (and probably are tired of hearing about) I hosted a contest on this blog a few weeks ago. It seemed at the time a really good way to drive traffic to the blog, and pull in some more long-term readers. Alas, I got ahead of myself with that one. It turns out that nobody entered the contest. However, rather than being sad or embarrassed about it, I've decided to do my best to learn from it. So, here, in a nice, formal bulleted list, are the things the contest has taught me:

• Contests bring in traffic in direct proportion to the number of readers you already have.

• Offering contestants a prize only works if they know that the prize is worth it.

• Nagging doesn't really work (sorry about that)

     First, the idea behind the contest was to draw a lot of interest in the blog, and get some readers. I have been (almost obsessively) studying my stats on the blog, trying to earn how things work as far as page views and visits. What I learned is that before the start of the contest, I had consistently about four readers viewing each post. With the publication of the contest, that number jumped all the way to 61! What that means, is that on average, those four viewers each brought in about fifteen readers to my blog! (and I cannot thank them enough, by the way!) SO, I managed to have 61 viewings of the creation contest posting, But, unfortunately, the mistake that post made was asking for something without really offering anything in return.

     That is to say, I was asking readers for their ideas without ever having shown them that I have the skills to make their investment worthwhile. I admit, I haven't shown my readers that I have what it takes  to make a game like the one I was asking for. OOPS. to be honest, I don't blame you guys for not wanting to chance your ideas in the big old internet. It's a scary place where people steal each other's ideas, identities, monies, etc. So, next time I try something like this, I'll be sure to offers some sort of collateral for your ideas.

     The last thing I realized is that in spite of my persistent reminders, from Facebook to tags at the end of the posts, if nobody is interested, nobody is going to post. Sorry about that. : /

To make it up to you, I am going to plot out and build a game anyway, and release it to you all for free. 

Thanks for reading! 

Grapefruit!

     This week, I decided to take care of some of the grapefruit on my (overabundant) tree. So, with the help of my sister, I climbed up there, and filled a laundry hamper with grapefruit. Then, I promptly ran out of time for the day. Oops.
     The next day, I found an hour to myself, during which I juiced all of the grapefruit, and gathered two and a half gallons of juice, which you can see in the picture on the right. (sorry about the bad pictures, one of these days I'll get a camera, and dazzle you all.) Then I added the rest of the ingredients to the jug. Here's the recipe, for those of you playing along at home:

2.5 Gallons of grapefruit juice


4 pounds of cane sugar


1 cup fructose


1/8 cup grapefruit zest


     The only tricky ingredient is the fructose, which I got at Henry's market. Basically, it's fruit sugar, which I was using to make up for the extra sour fruit. I shook it all up, and tied a rag over the mouth of the jug to keep bugs out.
     Now, let me warn you all, this is an experiment! I didn't really follow a particular recipe. As it turns out, grapefruit wine recipes range from "use a hydrometer to gauge the acidity, aiming for a relative gravity of 1.25" to "mix juice and sugar in a jug, wait till it's wine and enjoy." As a simpler kinda guy, I'm going with a jug of juice and sugar.
     According to my dad, his dad used to make the best damn wine, and if I am to get this to work, I am going to need some raisins. Apparently, raisins help kick over the fermentation process and get the wine really liquoring up. I'll be adding those as soon as I can get some, about a handful.

    So, that's the latest adventure in kitchening here, I'll keep updating about this as it goes onward, And letting you all know if it turns into wine, or just a big fat jug of bad smells.

     Also, for those of you with a sweet-tooth, I took a bunch of the peels of the grapefruit and candied them! I peeled them with a vegetable peeler, boiled them four times in fresh water, to rinse out all of the bitterness, then boiled them a fifth time, with about two cups of sugar on them. I let them boil ligthely like that for about two hours, then put them on a hard boil to thicken up the sugar syrup. After it started to get pretty thick, i laed the peels out on a lined baking sheet, ad let them cool before shaking them up in sugar. Apparently, by the way, shaking them up in sugar was a bad idea. They're a bit too sweet for just about everyone, but the flavor is fantastic!
So, that's what I've been up to this past week, What about you? what sort of experiments have you done in your kitchens? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear from you!

The Amberwine Case

     As you may have noticed, I am the kind of person who likes to have a couple of projects bouncing around. That way, if i hit a roadblock on one, I can hop to something else to keep my mind busy while my subconscious sorts out the problem with the first project. To that end, I have started a second blog, entitled "The Amberwine Case".
     The Amberwine Case is a serial adventure with heavy elements of mystery, which hopefully, will keep you guessing. The story takes place last year, starting in June, and plays out as the main character, alias Allen Bishop tries to tell his story, before he runs out of time to do so. It should be a pretty exciting adventure, and I'd appreciate anyone who reads this blog checking it out. It's very  different from what I am doing here, but i think it's pretty interesting. If you agree, please subscribe to it, and recommend it to friends! Also, if you are as in to Alternate realities as I am, don't tell them it's fictional! I'm doing my best to incorporate it into real-world locations and events, although some of the content is guaranteed to be a bit sci-fi! so check it out here:

http://amberwinecase.blogspot.com/

And tell your friends!

ALSO! don't forget about the contest I am running on this blog!
CREATION CONTEST!
I am taking entries until May 31st! That's one week from tomorrow, so don't forget to enter!
Thanks everyone!

Creation Contest!

Here's a question: Why does it seem that in every video game (okay, not every one, puzzles games are pretty good about it), but in most games, at least, there seems to be a strong element of violence? Anything medieval HAS to have a sword, anything modern needs a gun, the future needs lasers, but most games out there don't ask you to use a hammer and nails. Most of them are about destruction, rather than creation, and i think society reflects that. That's not to say that violent video games Cause violence in people, but rather the opposite. Art, including video games, is a reflection of ourselves, and our violent nature is reflected in video games. So, to that end, i propose a challenge:

I am looking for a short video game project, something simple, and something based around pacifism and creation. Anything at all. Share this around with your friends, and have anyone you know who might have an idea for a game like this post it in the comments of this blog. On May 31st, i will read through every comment, and select a game to make. Remember that the idea should be short, simple, and about peace and creation.

After i have chosen a game, i will sprite it, program it, and make it available for download here on the blog, with credits given to the person who created the concept.

Remember, any questions you have about this, ask in the comments, and i will clear them up.

Now, get in there and get creative!

Old Mess With New Life

A few weeks ago, i decided to take up a new project, using old junk and trash from around my yard and house, and rebuilding it into useful, appealing items. So, as my first step in the project, i found in our yard an old couch, which had been (quite unfortunately) ruined by cats. Normally, we would have to wait for our local big trash pickup day to get rid of something so large. But, as our big trash pickup is in January, that didn't strike me as practical. Instead, i decided to dismantle it and re-purpose it. I started by removing all of the fabric i could, and threw it away. Underneath all of the gross fabric, there was a great deal of really nice wood, a lot of which was made up of curved boards. The biggest trick of disassembling the couch was figuring out where it had been glued together or stapled, or sometimes screwed together. Identifying the fasteners, and then removing them was kindof a pain, and i definitely broke a bit more of the wood than i meant to, but in the end, i pulled a bunch of boards out of it. Then i just had to decide what to do with them. Ideally, i would have created the whole thing only out of boards i had scavenged from the couch, but that proved impractical. But, inspired by the curved boards from the couch, and supplemented by a few broken half-barrels i found in the orchard, i got to business, and built a pretty rustic arbor.

Which, if I do say so, worked out pretty well. Add in an old bench, and a large bush, and in no time, you've got a cozy little spot to have some iced tea and talk about the good old days, before the kids started listening to that Rock and Roll music, or their Hip and Hop.

The Curved top is made out of couch pieces, and so are the black curved frames at the bottom. two long boards running up the back round off the couch parts. the weird (rustic) latticing on the side is made up of oak slats from half-barrels, the type used to plant small trees. The bench was just something i had floating around. In the background, you can see Gus and Sasha making a big fat hole in the ground, which of course i love. SO, what do you think? A successful conversion of junk to treasure? any suggestions for projects you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments! And thanks for reading!

The Sky Boom!

I realize that this picture is neither incredibly exciting, nor clear, and yes, that is definitely my thumb, but what you are looking at is an awesome rig I built for watering my garden, and I am going to teach you how to make one!

Imagine a crane that follows you around your garden, but instead of a cable for lifting weight, the crane has a hose attached to it that lets you water your entire garden without fighting the hose. That is the SkyCrane. last year, we put soaker hoses through the entire garden, one in each of the raised beds. Unfortunately, the soaker hoses decided that one year of soaking was enough, and that from now on they are Spraying, leaky hoses. Obviously, I needed to find an alternative, so I decided to run a hose and water my plants by hand. It would give me a chance to get in there and notice the plants individually, and since I already had a garden hose, it wasn't going to cost anything. Perfect!
Then I tried lugging the hose through the garden, around the corners, and getting snagged on just about everything. That wasn't going to work for me. It was about then that I invented (okay, maybe I stole the idea from a self-serve carwash, but it definitely has a cooler name now) the SKYCRANE! (yes, I know, the skycrane is a heavy-lifting helicopter, but my nephew thinks the name is cool, so we're going to go with it.)
SO! Here, essentially, is what the Skycrane is: a T-shaped boom made out of lightweight fence-pipe, a set of counterweights, and a hose wrapped to the end, all supported by a fence post on the edge of the garden. It was incredibly simple to make, taking only about twenty minutes to put together, and because I built it out of scrap from around the yard, it was completely free.

Since I am not entirely convinced that my description is concise enough for you, I present a very technical digram rendered in exquisite detail:

Hopefully that clears everything up, but if not, be sure to post any questions in the comments section, and I will answer them ASAP. Hope you like it!

Urban Sprawl Repair Kit.

This is a Project i discovered while i was on stumbleupon about three minutes ago, and decided it was important for others to look at. This Project is about taking the sloppy, wasteful architecture from the unsustainable mcdonald's era, and modifying it to tidy up our neighborhoods, and improve quality of life. It's incredible stuff, simple, elegant, and most of all, functional. I encourage everyone who reads this blog to share this project, and support it any way you can.

Social Media and the Shortened Thought.

I have noticed recently that from time to time, a thought will occur to me, and rather than jumping straight into a conversation with whoever is near me, i sit on it and ponder. Gradually, as i am thinking about it, i am fine-tuning the phrasing, taking it from a full-thought to a single sentence. I realized today that what i am doing is cramming my thought into the tiny bracket allowed me by the facebook, or the twitter. It feels like our culture is dominated by the sound-byte, 160 digits or less, or it doesn't matter. Leaders, for years now, even before the spread of mass media, have been trimming the average length of their sentences, so as to make tidy headlines and quotations. I Just can't help but wonder if this a step forward for the English language, streamlining it into a more effective form of communication, or if what this really means is that our language is in the decline? What are your thoughts on the matter?

Building mysteries

Today, i noticed that Trigun had been released on Netflix instant, so i decided to go back through it again. I've seen it before, so i know how it goes, but it made me think about good character development, especially as it pertains to creating mysteries around your characters. The main character of the show, Vash the stampede (pictured) spends the entire first half of the series playing the clown, while the entire planet is convinced that he is a merciless killer, with a bounty of $$60,000,000,000 on his head. The guy is absolutely loveable, but the whole planet wants him dead? BOOM. I'm hooked.

The real trick of it is that confusion. The first episode is about bounty hunters looking for the legendary Vash the stampede, trying to win the bounty, but the whole time, nobody is quite sure who he is, two different red herrings appear, decked out with big guns and bad attitudes, while some goofy clown bounces around in the background. After awhile, it dawns n them that HE is Vash the stampede, and they join forces to capture him. But the goofy clown never fires a shot,surely this can't be the notorious gunman everyone is hunting down? Well, of course it is. that's the whole thing, the hero is this goofy guy who according to the legend destroys entire towns in a moment, and we've never even seen him fire a shot! it doesn't make any sense, and that's what draws you in.

Something inspirational

I have been listening to a song in Jen's car, a cover of "will you be there" by micheal jackson, and have been repeatedly irked by one of the lyrics.

But They Told Me
A Man Should Be Faithful
And Walk When Not Able
And Fight Till The End
But I'm Only Human

It's not the first time I've heard this excuse, and i doubt it's the first time you have. "I'm only human" I call bullshit. That's right, here and now, i want to silence anyone who has o ever intends to use their humanity as an excuse. Screw you. You're a disgrace to people.

"Oh snap!" I hear you say, "did he really just say that?" Of course I did. Being human is not something you can hide behind, it's something to be proud of. For thousands of years, people have been creating, loving, dancing singing, and being the greatest damn people on earth, all because they're human. Human beings are the only creatures on earth who think like we do, who really emote beyond basic instincts, is that something to hide behind? I say no, i'd say that it's a strength.

Take a short moment to look at the picture above. The reason i picked that building, the Aldar Hq in Abu Dhabi is that it strikes me as a beautiful symbol of us. Think for a moment about what must have gone into that building. Every single triangle of glass on the surface of that building is A: Gigantic, and B: has three side of different length. Think about that; Every triangle is different. Do you think that somehow, b random chance these thousands of triangles magically formed into a curved facade? Of course not! It was people, Humans, who took the work of honeybees, and applied their imagination to build skyscrapers, bridges, and homes. It's Humans whe launched themselves into space, who created medicine to help not only themselves, but other creatures as well/ Human isn't something to hide behind, it's something to be proud of.

Free houseplans

I spend a lot of time on stumbleupon, which jumps you to various randomly suggested websites, relating to your interests. While I was on there, I found a website that stuck me as very interesting, so i thought I'd share it here, and talk about it a bit.

earthbagplans.wordpress.com is a website put up by an architect who specializes in houses built using the earth-bag technique. The Basic idea is to stack bags filled with dirt to create heavy, well-insulated walls for your house. The bags can then be stuccoed over, to create an adobe-finish, which would blend in in almost any neighborhood (at least here in southern California). It's a very cool idea, the main material for the house is found completely locally, since dirt is just about everywhere, and the thick walls make cooling and heating the home much less expensive, because three feet of dirt insulate every wall. The earthbag houses are incredibly environmentally sound, and are (sorry for this) dirt cheap to build.

All of the environmental stuff is great, but what really made this blog interesting for me, was the fact that the architect Dr. Owen Geiger, made all of the floorplans for these houses available for free on the internet! Every blog post starts with a rendered picture of the particular home, then he has the specifications of the house (sq. footage, #of beds/baths, and the overall footprint of the house), a short description of it, and then the floorplans, right there, available for download! It's an incredibly generous thing to do, especially when you consider how much money architects tend to make.

So, if you're planning on building a house anythime soon, or just appreciate architecture or free things, i encourage you to check out earthbagplans.wordpress.com.

Donkey Kong

Yep, that's right, a post about a video game. I'm sure there aren't a hundred thousand blogs out there covering the same thing, but in all likelihood, most of my posts will not be about video games, so just bear with me on this one.

This post (while technically about a videogame), is actually about wasted potential and replay value. "Whoa," I hear you say, "this just got a bit heavier than I had hoped." Roll with me. Over the past week, my sister and I played co-op on the new wii version of the classic Donkey Kong country game. To be completely honest, I LOVED the game, and I'll tell you why; The game itself was a true-to-the-originals homage, but it was it's own game. Much like the New Super Mario game that came out last year, this game takes a classic franchise, blends in the wii, and makes something downright awesome. The worlds were from the original, but given new life as live 3d locations, which got down right cinematic. The game was very fulfilling, and spent the entire time hinting at great depth.

We spent the first half of the week playing through the game chronologically, from level to level, boss to boss, and had a great time. Even though the game was tough (we went through a lot of lives) we never got so frustrated that we quit, which is hard to pull off in games like this. As we played through the levels, there were extra things to collect, which were pretty gratifying when we could manage it, and suggested more replay when we didn't. For anyone familiar with the original donkey kong country game, the letters K-O-N-G returned, which were to be collected throughout each level, and there were also puzzle pieces to be collected in the same way. These puzzle pieces are the bone I would like to pick.

After the story is completed, it is revealed that collecting the Kong letters will lead you to a secret level, (I'm not really giving anything up, I hope.) "How exciting!" we exclaimed, straightening our monocles, "I say, let's get about it, then!", and we did. The whole while, we gathered Kong letters, and generally ignored the puzzle pieces, since we were fairly sure that after the Kong letters were gathered, they'd tell us to get those next. Oh wait, no they didn't.

Gathering KONG opened up nine bonus levels, which is fantastic, and each of those nine levels had their own group of puzzle pieces, as did every other level. It would seem that, if you are going to set the precedent of collecting items for bonus levels, that both sets would follow the pattern, but alas, Nintendo had other plans, apparently. We made jokes the entire time we played "watch, as soon as we get all the kong letters, they'll just say 'no, you can't enter the temple without the puzzle pieces'". Honestly, I think that would have been better than nothing, which is what we got. They used extra levels to motivate the collection of the kong letters, which worked great, and as a prize for finishing all of those levels we were given... mirror mode? Apparently we are expected to motivate ourselves to play the game by flipping it horizontally. I didn't bite.

I guess what I am saying is that, when you set up a motivator for replay value, like the puzzle pieces, you have to first entice the player (as they did with the Kong letters by "revealing the Golden Temple") And then reward them via extra content. To be fair, gathering the puzzle pieces unlocks concept art in a gallery, but really? I for one, wanted more to play, not a flip-flop, not pictures, gameplay. That's what the KONG letters did. They offered you more gameplay, in exchange for repeating previous gameplay. The ratio was about one new level for every nine old ones. You know what? That was more than enough. But trying to get me to replay just to get concept art isn't going to cut it. I like concept art, but at that point, playing through old content a third time, without the introduction of anything new turns it from a game to a grind, and I, for one, am not down for that.