lumi21

Happy Holidays

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:32:25 GMT

Hope everyone is having a good holiday break! I got a new digital camera for Christmas, something I've wanted for a long time. Hopefully I will trick myself into using it with great frequency =D

Looking forward to New Year's Eve with Miranda and a few other people. There will be games and food...can't really think of what else I need.

Saw it coming, and it was still...whoa.

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:19:11 GMT

Holy shit the season four finale of Dexter holy shit.

Thanksgiving break...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:48:21 GMT

I had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving day with my brother-in-law's family (first time I've been to a Thanksgiving that wasn't being held by "my" family), then returned to Long Island to throw a surprise 85th birthday party for my great aunt on Friday.

She was very surprised, but also very happy. Everyone at the party seemed to have a really great time, and I got to see a lot of family members I haven't seen in forever.

I spent Friday night in the city, then inamirata and I came back to the island on Saturday to spend some time with elhaym_solaris and Evan. We saw Ninja Assassin, which was...well, comedy silver. We had a great time, for much the same reasons as I did seeing 2012 (which is to say, we laughed at it almost constantly), but NA has a bit less to laugh at in exchange for some actually entertaining and impressive action sequences. It was ten bucks and two hours well spent.

We were supposed to go to a fondue place for dinner, but ended up doing hibachi instead, which also turned out to be a good choice. Our chef spent most of his "performance" singing snippets of 90's pop and and hip-hop songs, which was just hilarious given the context. We were seated with two other parties, and at one point a woman sitting beside us was overheard saying that "Twilight was way better than Harry Potter". This was not a fourteen-year-old suburban high school girl. This was a full grown woman, in her twenties or thirties. I resisted the urge to shank her with a chopstick, though I did cry a little on the inside =P

Sunday was mostly travel; I'll get to that in a moment.

As I said, there were two "mishaps" with my break. First, my flight to Philadelphia (where Thanksgiving day was spent). After moving the flight from one gate to another, the agent at the new gate informed us that the flight would be leaving at 12:30am. This was around 9:45pm (argh). Around a quarter after ten, I walked around the corner from the gate to get a drink and make a quick phone call to my sister, who was expecting to pick me up from the airport at midnight. I was about thirty feet from the gate the whole time.

At ten forty, I return to the gate. There's no one there. No passengers, no airline agent, no one. No one called my name, no one announced anything, no one told me that the flight had been moved to another gate yet again. But as it happened, no one from the airline told me about the first gate change, either (I asked another confused-looking passenger on my flight when a few people started to migrate away from the first gate, and found out that someone had informed one of us that there was a change, so we all sort of just followed as a herd). So, I went and found a Departure Status board to find the new gate. The word "RAIL" was listed for my flight, which meant nothing to me.

I spent a good twenty minutes finding another airline employee, because by this time there were apparently NO flights going out from the branch of the terminal I was in. I found a ground transportation office and asked some of the ground crew if they knew what "RAIL" meant, or where I could find my new departure gate. One of them asked me which flight it was; when I responded, another one piped up: "That flight's gone. Pushed it off myself, about fifteen minutes ago".

What. The. Fuck.

"Um, that can't be right. They said that flight wasn't leaving until 12:30am." Well, sure enough, the computer confirmed that it departed at 10:35pm. No announcement. No final boarding call. No last-boarding-call-for-passenger-Bob-Jones-at-gate-X. They just boarded up and left two hours before the last departure update had scheduled us for. I was directed to a customer service desk (two, actually; the first one was empty, and the one guy at the second desk told me it was "closed" until tomorrow morning! He was wise enough to hear my grievance after I gave him a convincing look), where I found out that a different airline agent boarded everyone on that plane, not the one who had announced the 12:30 departure time. This helped me understand the sequence of events a little better, but in no way excuses or even mitigates the world-class screw-up of the airline. I also discovered that it was the last flight to Philly that day. I was rebooked on the first morning flight they had, and spent the night in the airport, glued to the departure gate my new flight was scheduled for (yet compulsively checking the monitor for gate changes X.x). Yay for books and my DS for keeping me up through the night.

The morning flight was slightly delayed, but otherwise went without a hitch. I was picked up Thursday morning by my sister, went back to her place to shower and change, and then went over to the party. I was exhausted, but happy by the time I got there.

Mishap #2! Saturday night, after everyone else had gone home, I was lounging in my pajamas with my DS (Kindom Hearts: 358/2 Days), when my sister came down the stairs and asked if I wouldn't mind helping her get her friend Samantha home (they'd been barhopping and she'd had just a bit too much to drink to get herself home). I grabbed my wallet and she gave me her keys and I drove her car to Sam's house. On the way back, I got a call from my brother asking if I could come pick him up, too (home from college, didn't have a car, and also he broke his leg a couple months ago and can't drive with the cast!). Got him, came home, went to bed.

Woke up the next morning to find a flurry of activity. My sister was going home, trying to beat the crazy Sunday traffic, and my brother, who'd expected to spend the day at home, was frantically getting packed to go to the airport, as Mom had discovered by complete chance that the flight we'd all thought was taking him home at 5pm...was actually taking him home at 1pm. This was at about 10:30am. Oops.

I helped as best I could, and watched everyone drive off. I, at least, still had the day "off" (my return flight was scheduled for 6am Monday morning). About two hours later, I was dressed and looking around for my phone, my chains, my shoes, my wallet...where's my wallet? Not in my back pocket where it ALWAYS is, not by the side of the bed, not in my jacket pocket, not upstairs in my brother's room where I'd been chatting with him the night before...

Racked my brain...last time I know I had it was when I went out the night before, it was on the table by the bed, I put it in my pocket...

...my pajama pants pocket...

....my very shallow pajama pants pocket.

There are now two possibilities. Both suck horribly, but one is far worse. I decide to check the better possibility first. I call my sister.

"Jess, I need to ask you a terrible question. Is my wallet in your car?"

"What? Um, no, I don't think so (sounding very doubtful). We would have seen it...Jeff, see if Scott's wallet is next to your seat, he thinks it might've fallen out of his pocket last night...yeah, I know...it's- oh. Wow. Yeah, it's here."

Shit.

"Where are you?"

"About half an hour from home." Home being Philadelphia. Argh.

So, about an hour later, Mom and I left Massapequa to meet her in Princeton to get my wallet back. I couldn't go myself because MY WALLET WAS GONE. ARGH. Fortunately, it had fallen out of my pocket in the car, and not on the street, as I had feared it might have. All worked out in the end, but an anxious event nonetheless.

I'm back home now, and settling back into my routine. Yay for the holidays, can't want to do it again in a few weeks for Christmas.

Weekend Update

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:00:44 GMT

I had a lovely date Friday night, and then a last minute change of plans that extended my overnight excursion into a full weekend. I underwent the Meeting of the Grandparents, twice, and felt that it was a decidedly positive experience.

Bryant Park has a fantastic holiday setup. A skating rink, a seasonal two-level nightclub, called Celsius (all metal and full-size glass walls and blue neon lighting, very cool), and a ton of market stalls with various holiday wares and snackage. We took a nice stroll through the area before heading back toward Grand Central for dinner, which also turned out to be fantastic.

Saturday and Sunday were primarily spent meeting two sets of grandparents, who I believe generally approved of me, and who had some very entertaining stories to tell. I was also given a tour of Miranda's childhood highlights courtesy of several photo albums. She has always been an adorable redhead since the beginning, it seems. This is no surprise; what was a surprise is that she owned not one, but two absolutely MASSIVE dogs. I'm talking bigger-than-her, put-a-saddle-on-them-and-feed-them-a-carrot dogs. Too cute.

I wish the travel time for these visits were a little less than it is, but it is worlds better than a couple weeks ago, and it is doable now. I consider myself lucky, and can't wait for next weekend.

Also, I saw 2012 tonight with Andrew.

OMGCOMEDYGOLD. We laughed our way through the whole thing. Must see this movie, seriously. :D

Oof.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:59:00 GMT

Productivity took a hit today, but I did get a lot of laundry done, and that is a kind of personal victory for me.

I blame the intense distraction of tomorrow for all this, I think.

=)

Python resources

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:16:35 GMT

Anyone have any suggestions for a good entry-level Python tutorial, besides the one featured on the Python homepage?

Beautiful sunrises

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:54:38 GMT

Today seems like a really good day to resume posting. I am exhausted, but I have a feeling I'm going to remember this day for the rest of my life.

To a certain slumbering sunflower...I love you.

Writer's Block: I May Be Crazy

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:07:36 GMT

What does this Rorschach blot look like to you?

View 560 Answers

Chibi vampire bat flyin' at ya!

Wheel of Time summaries

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:52:36 GMT

I...have to share these.

GDC Conference Report

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:52:12 GMT

GDC was awesome. Some details to follow.

Well, it certainly didn't disappoint. We were there from Sunday to Sunday (more on that later). I got the chance to visit my aunt/godmother who lives in Sausalito, and kindly showed me around San Francisco on Sunday and Friday (it being my first trip to CA ever).

We saw Ghirardelli Square (I bought...a lot of chocolate), the Embarcadero (ate at The Slanted ~~Dwarf~~ Door, and hit See's Candy to buy...more chocolate). We drove down Lombard Street (aka the most crookedest street in the world...I cannot possibly imagine living on that street, it would be a nightmare), visited George Lucas' campus at the Presidio, saw the Golden Gate Bridge from a couple dozen different angles, and, to my delight, visited Coit Tower (for the 6/7 players in the house, that's where I found the Bradshaw media storage depot with the Jennifer artifacts...it was so cool to actually go there, but sadly, I could not find the storage depot X.x). During the whole thing, I got a great history lesson about various aspects of the city.

Right, then. The conference.

Monday

Day 1 of the Game Design Workshop. Introduction to the MDA framework (Mechanics -> Dynamics -> Aesthetics). This was mostly review, but it's the sort of stuff that is well worth reviewing at regular intervals, IMHO. Also introduced the concept of "fail fast" (IOW, rapid iteration...make sure you're not getting hung up on details in early prototypes so you can quickly see what does and doesn't work, make adjustments, and move on to the next iteration). Again, basic stuff and review for most in the room, but good stuff to review.

They broke us up into three groups at that point and sent us to three different rooms, where we further broke down into groups of 6 for an exercise based on Sissyfight 3000. It was great...my group came up with a survival horror theme with a zombie horde. Then we overheard the group next to us declare that they were doing a survival horror theme with an axe murderer, so we reskinned ours to be a boy band running from a ravening horde of screaming 14 year old girls. It played out well, to the entertainment of the rest of the crowd =)

At this point we had to sign up for elective events. I chose "World of Rulecraft" for the first section, which was a sort of "Massively Multiplayer Offline Roleplaying Game". We each chose a class (Rogue, Warrior, or Mage) and went around the room challenging each other to duels (or in the case of rogues like myself, stealing from the other players =D). When we defeated five different people, we could go to the admins and level up, increasing our power.

The catch was, every couple of minutes, "the servers went down", and when they came back up, there were updated "patch notes" on the projection screen. The patch notes were determined by a seperate group of workshop attendees who were chosen beforehand as "moderators". The purpose of the exercise was to get an understanding of how to handle changes to a ruleset that occurred during gameplay. It was probably the most enjoyable part of the workshop.

The second elective for the afternoon was an introduction to the game The Three Musketeers. Pretty simple and straightforward, moderately fun. Our "homework assignment" was to find a way to improve upon the gameplay, specifically to find rulesets that accomodated 3 players, or 4 players. The bonus question was to find a ruleset that handled anywhere from 2-4 players. Harder than it sounds, believe me.

Monday night there was an RPI Alumni event at the Westin hotel a couple blocks away. I saw a number of people there, including arkineaux, one of my fellow 6/7 players, and many others. It was a great time, I ended up staying out with RPI folk until quite late. Also I got a nifty bottle opener and a pen to commemorate the event O.o

Going to take a break here, and cover the other days in a later post.

GDC

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 04:09:47 GMT

More details when I'm not dead from, well, everything, but...GDC, after about 7 years of pedestal-worshipping anticipation, was everything I'd hoped for and more.

Also...Hideo Kojima? Pretty funny guy, especially with a powerpoint presentation to back him up.

Retro gamer bonus points

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:52:42 GMT

Retro look at the stimulus package pricetag.

Poor Muncher.

GDC

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:13:01 GMT

Will anyone else be attending the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco this year?

Relocation

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:26:34 GMT

It has been a... hectic few months. It will continue to be hectic for at least another month, but for now, the relevant summary is that I am moving from New York to Alpharetta, Georgia, at the end of January to take a new game designer position at Xaviant.

Life update

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:37:52 GMT

Sort of. The short version is, "stuff happened, updates pending". I'll make up for the quiz I missed this week when I get the chance.

In the meantime, enjoy two of my friend's excellent Evil League of Evil applications: Dug and Mirandom.

Political gaming ftw?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:00:19 GMT

I am in zhai's debt for sharing this with me:

Best campaign log excerpt ever.

I'll take Useless Crap for 4500, Alex

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:58:57 GMT

Here. Have some week-old answers!

By special request, there is a theme overlaying the usual categories this week. I'll leave it to you all to figure it out!

Same rules as always: NO Internet, post your submission, and highlight for the answers after I post them later.

1. To cure Desert Fever, one must acquire a Sand Ruby. Where can one be found?
2. What causes Teal'c to dream that he is a human firefighter, and has agreed to donate a kidney to Master Bra'tac (also apparently human now)?
3. Fill in the blank: "This isn't part of my program! I'm a doctor, not a ________." - Emergency Medical Hologram
4. What is the name of the chemical used by members of The Cadre that slows the perceptual passage of time, giving them superhuman reaction time? What is the primary drawback of its use?
5. Approximately how much blood does the average adult human body contain?

1. Should one be unfortunate enough to contract this affliction while crossing the desert near the oasis village of Kaipo, better hope someone is around to retrieve the Ruby from the lair of the ant-lion.
2. This surreal episode of Stargate SG-1, written by Christopher Judge (the actor who portrays Teal'c), includes a hallucination in which the organ transplant is representative of the need to share his Goa'uld symbiote with Bra'tac to survive following an ambush that leaves both grievously injured.
3. This particular permutation of the infamous Bones-Kirk exchange is notable because it is used by the EMH in First Contact. Upon activation, he is told by Beverly Crusher to "create a distraction" for the Borg drones about to break the door down, to which he replies that he is a doctor, not a doorstop.
4. Cadre members are privy to the most classified of pharmaceutical packages for their personal internal pharmacopes. The pinnacle of such chemical enhancements is called "the tick", which, while granting superhuman response time in almost any situation, has the unpleasant side effect of violent nausea and vomiting every time its effects wear off, leaving the user feeling like his or her stomach has just been through the wringer. If none of this makes any sense, I recommend Path of the Fury, by David Weber ^_~
5. The approximate volume of blood in an adult human is roughly five litres.

Good luck!

...oh yeah. THAT was definitely the reason.

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:41:45 GMT

Uve Boll blames Tara Reid for Alone in the Dark.

Courtesy of The Escapist:

He even acknowledges that he should have "had a better script and better characters." Must...bite...tongue...

DRM in a nutshell

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:07:10 GMT

I love flow charts.

We know who's courting the youth vote

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:53:19 GMT

In-game advertising meets the presidential election.

As long as it's no more intrusive than existing in-game ads, I'm okay with this, I think. Certainly impressed that someone thought of it.

Holy @(#*&@!!!!

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:44:08 GMT

I am utterly speechless. The link shows footage of player-created content in the new LittleBigPlanet for the PS3. Someone MADE that thing, and it WORKS.

Give that guy a prize. And a less cumbersome calculator.

I'll take Useless Crap for 4400, Alex

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:50:48 GMT

Last week's answers. Enjoy!

Same rules as always: NO Internet, post your submission, and highlight for the answers after I post them later.

1. How does Princess Alena win the final round of the tournament at the castle of Endor?
2. What does an injection of promicin do?
3. James Spader:Michael Shanks::Kurt Russell:_______________.
4. In the Land of Waldos, what sets THE Waldo that the reader searches for apart from his identical brethren?
5. In Thai cuisine, what is the base ingredient for red or green curry dishes?

1. After besting all her previous opponents, Alena is set to face the mysterious Saro in the final round. However, he has inexplicably vanished! Hence, Alena wins by forfeit.
2. A promicin shot can have one of three effects. In a normal human, it will cause the development of an indeterminate 4400 ability, or death. In a pre-existing 4400, it causes nothing to happen, since the body is already producing its own promicin.
3. James Spader and Michael Shanks have both portrayed Dr. Daniel Jackson in the Stargate universe (the former in the original movie and the latter on the television series SG-1). Kurt Russell played the role of Colonel Jack O'Neill in the movie; the role on SG-1 was filled by Richard Dean Anderson.
4. What a pain in the ass this was! In an entire two-page spread of Waldos, the reader had to find the ONE Waldo who was missing a single shoe. His socks were the same distinctive red-and-white striped pattern as his shirt, which didn't help, all things considered.
5. The base for Thai curry dishes is coconut milk. Various ingredients are added from there, but it always starts with the coconut milk.

Good luck!

The controller of the future?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:47:56 GMT

Every fiber of my being wants this piece of technology to be everything I have always dreamed of it being, and those same fibers are quite convinced it will fall flat on its face when put into practical (gaming) application.

Anyone remember the game "Toobin'"?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:09:26 GMT

This has to be the coolect actual bank robbery to happen in a long time.

Nintendo DSi

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:45:46 GMT

Looks like everyone's favorite handheld is going to see some upgrades in the future.

Japanese release in November, no word on western release, but apparently they're have a press conference in San Francisco on Thursday, so maybe we'll hear more.

Personally, I'd love it if my DS could be my new iPod.