Neat Things

Animemyu

2009-04-18T16:55:00.001-07:00

Animemyu
Originally uploaded by agius.

Cosplay troupe at Cherry Blossom S F.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Creepiest Christmas Decoration

2008-12-22T17:46:00.001-08:00

Creepiest Christmas Decoration
Originally uploaded by agius.

Reminds me of the wall-hugging fetus launchers in Dead Space.
--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 protest SF

2008-11-15T13:29:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 protest SF
Originally uploaded by agius.

Rev Dr Dorsey Blake, the first black professor at Tuscaloosa.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 Protest

2008-11-15T13:27:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 Protest
Originally uploaded by agius.

Jewel Gomez - lesbian vampire novelist. Chairman of the Library
commission, with her partner.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 Protest SF

2008-11-15T13:25:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 Protest SF
Originally uploaded by agius.

Raul Hernandez, from the Latino community. He doesn't blame the
Latinos - he blames the Yes on 8 campaign for lying to people.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 protest - Mormons for Marriage speaking

2008-11-15T13:20:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 protest - Mormons for Marriage speaking
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 Protest

2008-11-15T13:18:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 Protest
Originally uploaded by agius.

Mark Leno just finished speaking. He was inspiring! Carol Midgen is up
next, after a short chant.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 Protest band ensemble

2008-11-15T10:09:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 Protest band ensemble
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 protest SF

2008-11-15T10:03:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 protest SF
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

photo.jpg

2008-11-10T18:01:00.001-08:00

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Prop 8 protest over... For tonight.

2008-11-07T20:53:00.001-08:00

Prop 8 protest over... For tonight.
Originally uploaded by agius.

The battle will live on.
--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

It does not end tonight!

2008-11-07T20:40:00.001-08:00

It does not end tonight!
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Civic Center - no on 8 protest

2008-11-07T20:13:00.001-08:00

Civic Center - no on 8 protest
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Civic Cwnter - prop 8 protest.

2008-11-07T20:09:00.001-08:00

Civic Cwnter - prop 8 protest.
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Market Street Protest!

2008-11-07T20:06:00.001-08:00

Market Street Protest!
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Market Street!

2008-11-07T19:59:00.001-08:00

Market Street!
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Dolores Park - protest destination.

2008-11-07T19:50:00.001-08:00

Dolores Park - protest destination.
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Dolores Park - with disco.

2008-11-07T19:34:00.001-08:00

Dolores Park - with disco.
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Dolores Park

2008-11-07T19:31:00.001-08:00

Dolores Park
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Music is a weapon!

2008-11-07T18:36:00.001-08:00

Music is a weapon!
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

photo.jpg

2008-11-04T21:25:00.001-08:00

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by agius.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Montara Beach

2008-10-12T15:34:00.001-07:00

Montara Beach
Originally uploaded by agius.

I don't get why people don't seem to like the beach as much as I do.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Halloween

2008-10-10T22:42:00.001-07:00

Halloween
Originally uploaded by agius.

Somebody's ready! I hope I can do this when I get a house someday.

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Palin on Queers

2008-10-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

From the debate last night:

PALIN:But I also want to clarify, if there's any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves, you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don't agree with me on this issue.

Tolerance: to put up with something you hate. To suffer through something you would otherwise end.

Choice: A conscious decision reached by an individual after evaluating the available options.

"Some of my best friends are gay! Or at least, not as homophobic as me!: NOT a get-out-of-homophobia free card.

McCain has a hateful position towards gay & lesbian Americans. He supports proposition 8 in California. He said he would support a Federal Marriage Amendment. He does not believe that GLBT people should be allowed to adopt.

And here Palin is, trying to spin it so they look ever so nice. They don't hate those dirty, dirty queers, you see? The pair just doesn't think minorities deserve the same rights as the majority.

This is a big change from 2004. McCain opposed the marriage amendment in 2004. In fact, he was all against the religious right until about 2006, when he sold all his principals in the hopes of winning the primary. Well, I guess that works in the Republican aisles.

Oh, but Obama and Biden are the same, aren't they? After all, Biden said he opposes gay marriage! No. No, they are not the same at all. Obama supports repealing the Defense of Marriage Act - you know, that piece of legislation that means a gay couple's marriage from Massachusetts doesn't mean shit anywhere else. Obama supports legislation to make discrimination in the workplace illegal. Obama supports legislation adding LGBT people to the list of minorities protected by hate crime legislation. Obama supports civil unions - probably federal ones - that would have the same legal rights as marriage.

Also, Biden didn't say he would "tolerate" the "choices" of gay people. Biden wasn't outright insulting and condescending. And that is a big difference between these two campaigns.

D&D 4e

2008-09-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

So, this last Tuesday I had an opportunity to play Dungeons & Dragons, 4th edition for the first time. I have played D&D since very late into 2nd edition, but I had heard exciting things about the new version and was looking forward to it. Overall, I was surprised at how much fun it was, even at 1st level, and look forward to playing more - though there are some parts from the old editions I will definitely miss.

First off, I haven't had a chance to memorize every rule, monster, and spell yet - so if I miss something obvious, cut me a little slack. Also, I got to play in a different setting than I usually play in. I usually play with a group of friends I know personally, for no real reason other than enjoyment. This time, I went to an RPGA meeting - a continuous world consisting of hundreds of campaigns across the country all set in the Living Forgotten Realms world. The idea of the RPGA is that characters are transferable across games, and larger games have the ability to affect each other. For example, the RPGA will give out a large quest that culminates in the destruction of a god of evil, then that act will be reflected in other games across the country. It's a neat idea to create a shared world - something MMO's don't get into very much.

I played a first-level wizard. In previous editions, this is a pretty boring part to play - you can cast 1-3 spells that actually do anything, then you're done until the end of the day, which is usually the end of the adventure. However, 4th edition changes the game a LOT for wizards. Instead of picking out spells at the beginning of the day, then losing them once they're cast, you pick spells when you level up. There are three kinds of spells - at-will (which you can cast every round, if you like), per-encounter (which you can cast once per fight) and per-day (your biggest and nastiest spells, which hearken back to the old system).

This means every round, I have a couple different options I have to pick from. And I never have to choose "Do nothing, save my spells for the big bad guy." Wizards spent significant time doing nothing at lower levels in the older editions.

From what I saw, fighters have the same sorts of choices to make. All types of warriors - from sneaky rogues to spiritual paladins have abilities that let them target certain enemies, move around the battlefield, and affect the encounter. No longer are fighters condemned to "I hit him with my axe" every single round.

Also, certain new mechanics (Healing Surges and Second Wind) allow all characters to heal themselves somewhat, so the cleric is similarly not confined to "I heal whoever's hurt" every round.

So, even though it was a low-level adventure, it FELT like a higher-level adventure in 3rd edition. I read interviews from the designers of 4th edition where they stated that 5th to 8th level was "the sweet spot" in 3rd edition, and they really tried to make the whole game play more like those levels.

Overall, it was a very fun experience. I intend to go back this week, and may start DMing 4th edition in the near future. Probably more updates to come in the future.

Pinecones

2008-09-13T23:53:00.001-07:00

Pinecones
Originally uploaded by agius.

They sell pinecones in grocery stores here. You know, since they're
not around anywhere. Just Coconuts! XD

--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Anti-Technology Field

2008-09-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Holy frick SEALS!!

2008-08-30T20:12:00.001-07:00

Holy frick SEALS!!
Originally uploaded by agius.

Wow! These guys got really close to us in Monterey. They were just
chillaxin', sunnin', and barkin' (when those annoying humans got too
close). They were darn cute, though!

Big Sur cruise

2008-08-30T16:55:00.001-07:00

Big Sur cruise
Originally uploaded by agius.

We drove south to Carmel and to Big Sur today. On our way back now -
gosh but this place is amazing! Driving along the cliffs lining the
ocean - just gorgeous! LOTS of pics coming later - I picked up about
300, some of which ought to be pretty good.

I love the beach

2008-08-29T19:02:00.001-07:00

I love the beach
Originally uploaded by agius.

Even when it's presenting its foggy mystery rather than sunny visage.
Currently at the Miramar beach restaurant. Family visiting this
weekend, so I may be out of contact. Good times, though!

Coastal Hike

2008-08-24T15:45:00.001-07:00

Coastal Hike
Originally uploaded by agius.

Hiked about a mile out on this rocky harbor barrier. It was awesome -
rolling water, fishing Asians, dogs, kayakers, and planes doing
aerobatics.

Jakob Nielson and the "Over-designed" Web

2008-08-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

So, Hank Williams posted on his blog last week about how Jakob Nielsen's web site www.useit.com is an eyesore. Hank's theory was that the lack of design on Jakob's page ultimately hurts its usability - when something hurts your eyes to read, you are less likely to read it.

I've found this to be true. I find Nielsen's site hard to read. I deal with it, because his writings were important in our Computer Graphics curriculum, and I think he has some really useful and pointed advice on practical usability testing. For example, several of our senior design project groups in CGT rolled with his theory that 5 usability tests are enough, and found that those tests caught all the bugs that might come up during a presentation / demo.

However, Doc Searls made a post on linuxjournal.com wherein he states that design is a bad thing, to be left up to the users and not dictated by THE MAN, or any other sort of designer. Opening paragraph:

Back in the mid-90s, when Linux was still at 1.something, website design was a simple exercise that left matters such as font choice up to the user. It was blessedly free of the Tyranny of Typography, the Legacies of Layout, and other controlling influences from the Provinces of Print. Better yet, it was free by design from withering rebuke by aesthetes whose high-minded "taste" made life miserable for both writers and readers. Back then the Web was meant to be maximally usable and minimally controlled by Authorities who knew more about what you need than you do.

Usability and design, of course, are potentially THE major flaws holding off mainstream adoption of Linux and open source software in general. I have had some pretty bad experiences with open-source software that ran with the "let the user pick everything with preferences" theory. I found Notepad++ to be nearly unusable in its downloaded state until I had spent hours sorting through poor font choices for code and comments (Comic Sans? Really?). Eventually I gave up and went with InType, which has better defaults. Same deal with the "build-it-yourself with plugins" music player foobar2000 - after trolling forums for a few hours in search of basic plugins that would get the features I wanted, I switched back to Winamp (and don't get me started on some of the 'skins' for that program).

I think this is what would ultimately happen to the web if we agreed with Doc Searles' view that the internet should be free of the "Tyranny of Typography." If everything was stripped to its 'glorious' raw-html formatting and rendered in OS default types, I think the web would become largely unusable. Not many people would waste their time customizing the defaults of their browser to make the internet fit them. Large, bold Times New Roman is an eyesore, and I could only take so much of it. Design allows branding and character, and if all web sites faded into a bland, terminal-like mesh of default-font text, they would become indistinguishable. Even the most amazing text would become bland and boring. I'm sure people would still use the internet - it's too quick and important a medium to be killed by a lack of design - but I don't think it would have caught on with consumers nearly as much, and I don't think most people would find it as generally appealing or useful. In short, it would be like Linux.

Doc Searles does have a point in that some sites abuse design, causing long loading times. But some sites like John Gruber's www.daringfireball.net manage to balance themselves out. Daring Fireball has a design that has been distinctive and eye-pleasing for years, uses few images, loads quickly, and looks great on my phone. Design can be used to brand a page, hold attention, and attract users without interfering with usability goals such as load times and mobile device visibility.

So, while I understand the mindset of the Doc, I disagree with his notion that designs on the web should be entirely left up to the user. I also disagree with Hank Williams' notion that just because Jakob's site is an eyesore, Mr. Nielsen has nothing useful to say about usability.

Ren Faire

2008-08-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

Ren Faire
Originally uploaded by agius.

Got here, got parking - so far going way better than the middle-of-
downtown misadventures.
--
Andrew
www.atevans.com

Xbox Live Things

2008-08-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

It's a good week for downloads. I have had very little downtime, and what time has been available has mostly been eaten by Dexter. But I got a little chance to play some games, and man this is a good week for downloads.

Firstly, Geometry Wars 2! Considering the first Geometry Wars was half the reason I bought a 360, I'm pretty excited about the new one. I got a chance to play the demo this week, and it is amazing. Video demo here. After playing the demo, I found it manages to retain the core gameplay (Robotron-style arena moving and shooting) while introducing new elements that radically change the tactics and strategy. With stuff like the shot-reflective barriers, new enemy types, and more vicious black holes, this is definitely an updated experience. Also, the graphics have been upgraded to be EVEN SHINIER and more epileptic-seizure inducing. I will buy the full version soon.

Secondly, one of my favorite classic arcade titles has received a massive update courtesy of Capcom. 1942: Joint Strike is an HD update of one of the original scrolling shoot-em-up games. From playing the demo, this is definitely an impressive shmup. Powerups are helpful and unique, enemies swarm with steadily increasing viciousness, and the boss fights are suitably awe-inspiring. The 'escape sequence' after the boss in the demo was unexpected and harrowing - one of those moments that racks up the tension and makes playing shoot-em-ups a blast. Preview video here.

Then there's Braid. The only game here I haven't played yet. This is an indy game now being sold on the Live Arcade for big money - 1200 Microsoft Points (around $15). For anyone who liked Odin Sphere, the appeal will be immediate and obvious - 2d scrolling action on beautiful pastel-looking sketches. Though I haven't played it, reviews are universally good, especially from Giant Bomb and GayGamer.net, my usual trusted sources on this sort of thing. Read the developer's blog here.

Finally, as I've twittered in the last day or two, Rock Band has put out some wickedly awesome music lately. Less pop, more industrial and metal, groups like System of a Down, Dream Theater, and Megadeth have been released in the last two weeks, much to my delight. I have played the guitar parts (which make me happy), and need to try out the drums - Megadeth and Devil Driver are not shy about using double bass pedals on their drums, and I want to see how Rock Band has compensated for the lack of one on their drum kit (oh, nevermind - they just don't have you play the actual drum strikes anymore). Needless to say, good songs for those who appreciate the challenge.

So, anyone want to play online?

CERN Rap

2008-08-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

Umm... wow. Just... wow.

Now I'm amped to see if the Higgs boson exists.

Gumball 3000

2008-08-09T11:10:00.001-07:00

Gumball 3000
Originally uploaded by agius.

DO WANT!!!

Ferrari Testarossa? Whatever, it's EXTREMELY AWESOME!

I Love California

2008-08-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

I love the fact that I live within 10 minute's drive of this view. And 30 minute's drive of downtown SF. I seriously think I landed in one of the nicest places on Earth. More coming on my Flickr.

Thoughts from This Week

2008-07-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

The Dark Knight is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The Joker will live in infamy. And seeing it in IMAX is awesome!
The mountains south of the Bay Area are magnificent - as is the drive up coastal highway 1 to Half Moon Bay. Yay, outdoors!
Hancock was extremely funny. Even the Aesop was off-kilter: your destined, One True Love is poison - avoid at all costs!
Are the Ferangi a Gene Roddenberry indictment of the Objectivism philosophy? Seems likely.
"A" by DJ Amuro is REALLY HARD if you haven't played DDR in 5-6 months.
Neighborhood bar + Karaoke + Iron Maiden = awesome!
It's like a perpetual nerd convention in the Bay Area - there's too much to do any given weekend, and the opportunity cost of doing anything is enormous!
Like any semester, this one is starting slow. I suspect it will build to medium stress levels over 1-2 months.
Hulu.com is worth it just for watching Babylon 5 - now where are the rest of the seasons?
Jimmy Buffett is awesome. Especially on Rock Band.
Maybe I will get back into Twitter - hopefully they can stay up for a while.

Catch up time!

2008-07-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

So, what's been happening since I moved in? Well, kind of a lot. And not much. At home, things have been dreadfully boring - having no internet in the heart of Silicion Valley is like a sensory depravation chamber. I had no way to find stuff to go out and do, which I am normally very good at. At work, things are coming along. We've had a few really fun events (including a tour of San Francisco and going to see the Giants game last night) and a lot of listening to people go over what the company does and how it gets done. I should start actual working work after next week - 'till then, it's a bit of a waiting game.

I'll post more pictures and summaries of things as I get around to them. But things are looking way, way up now. I can communicate, go places, and invite people over. Time to make some friends and get this new west-coast life rolling! :D

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Xbox 360 | Game | Life from Wired.com

2008-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to Xbox 360 | Game | Life from Wired.com:

"Capping off their E3 2008 press conference Monday, Microsoft dropped an old-school E3 surprise announcement: Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII would be heading to Xbox 360, day-and-date with the PlayStation 3 version."

I knew it! I knew Squenix couldn't afford to release the newer, higher-budget FF game on the PS3 only. Sweet! Now I don't have to buy one of Sony's spaceships!

I'm back online!

2008-07-19T00:52:00.000-07:00

And as soon as I blog my frustrations withy AT&T (from the AT&T baseball stadium no less) I'm back online! Whoohoo! Feel free to email / IM / NETBLAST / Facebook / whatever me - I can get all that again!

YEAH!

Giants getting eaten by Brewers

2008-07-18T20:30:00.001-07:00

Giants getting eaten by Brewers
Originally uploaded by agius.

Seriously, I swear I will start posting once AT&T or somebody gets my
damn Internet working. For now - sorry, home team. Too bad about
getting pwned by Milwaukee.

Moved In

2008-07-12T13:07:00.001-07:00

Moved In
Originally uploaded by agius.

I got here Tuesday. Since then my sister and I have been buying
essential things like pots, pans, and furniture, and alternately going
out to have an awesome time. The drive here was fun and pretty
(especially if you like deserts or mountains), and exploring the
coastal Highway 1 and downtown San Francisco have been really neat.
Making seven trips to Ikea was not so cool, but pretty liveable thanks
to my saint of a sister.

No Internet yet - AT&T takes an entire week to allow me to activate
it. :( Oh well. More details and pretty pics when I can post from my
computer.

Namaste!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-04T19:05:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow, I begin my long journey westward to my new home in San Mateo, CA and my new job in Menlo Park. Today is sad for me, because everything is winding down, and I am leaving my home in Maryland once again. My awesome friends here threw a big goodbye party for me, with Rock Band and Smash Bros. and some darn good food and drink. Today my parents had a big BBQ - we ate steak and played with the dogs. The party last night kept me up very late, and looming storm clouds convinced us to stay in rather than journey downtown to see fireworks. But we had an excellent Australian Shiraz to go with the televised display, and with all the feelings and my energy level, it was a nice way to spend the 4th.

Tomorrow will be sad in the morning, but I expect it will be exciting and adventurous by afternoon. My super-cool sister is helping me with the 3 to 4 day drive out to northern California, and I think once we get on the road I will be ecstatic and impatient about the new life I'm to build out there.

Perhaps more retrospective later - for now, I must get music for the road ahead. Peace and best wishes, friends.

Dogsitting

2008-06-26T18:14:00.001-07:00

Dogsitting
Originally uploaded by agius.

My dad is watching these dogs for a friend. They are shibu-inus, a
sort of Japanese toy dog breed. They're puppies, really - and they
have the usual teenage manners issues. :) But they're cute and fun for
a week at any rate.

My Apartments

2008-06-25T13:55:00.001-07:00

IMG_5297
Originally uploaded by agius.

Okay, so I've been slow to get around to this, but I finally got a place! I secured a big 1-bedroom apartment in San Mateo, which is part of a beautiful community. Pool and some apartments shown here. Interior shot at this link.

I found several really good deals on apartments, but ultimately I decided I wanted a no compromises, really really nice place to come home to every day and to invite friends to. And I think this is it. Laundry rooms are huge, and just down the stairs from me. No air conditioning - but then, NOWHERE had air conditioning except some luxury apartments which cost $2200 / month. Everyone said that with Bay Area weather, you don't need A/C, except maybe 10 days a year... and a fan will do fine for those few days.

I'm blown away with how awesome this place is, and I can't wait to start setting up my gaming cave. Just a week and a half more, and I move out there! Wish me luck!

More Brawl Taunts

2008-06-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

A Newgrounds animation - don't expect a masterpiece, but if you know anything about 4chan, this should be funny.

Safe for work - but you might want headphones. >.>

Half Moon Bay Rocks!

2008-06-13T19:20:00.001-07:00

Half Moon Bay Rocks!
Originally uploaded by agius.

Half Moon Bay brewing co. - a frickin' awesome restaurant down on the
Pacific coastline. Sweet!!!

Here's hoping I can find good apartments tomorrow!

GTA IV succeeds where Bioshock didn't

2008-06-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

I beat GTA IV last week, finally! I got the "Liberty City Minute" achievement for beating the story in less than 30 hours - though, I think extensive retries and loading had something to do with that. I probably put that many hours into it, overall.

GTA IV was a lot of fun. The shooting / combat system was much improved from the last GTA I played (Vice City) and made the "kill everyone at this location" missions a lot of fun. The occasional rampage also made Liberty City more pleasent - whenever some asshole driver hit me or my car by making a stupid driving move, I could just blow them up with a friggin' grenade! Who hasn't wanted to follow up a fender-bender with a few rounds of explosives? The minigames were entertaining (except pool), and I got really good at darts by the end of everything. Stealing cars and outrunning the cops is as fun as ever - grabbing a Hummer and running over other cars made it very enjoyable.

There were some parts that made the game a bit less golden. The physics were very frustrating on a number of occasions - as Zero Punctuation notes, slamming through rows of lamp posts, mailboxes and people only to be halted by the world's thinnest 2x4 really got on my nerves, and made some of the missions extraordinarily difficult. The car chases were very difficult, and often frustrating due to mixed up mission objectives: it would say 'take out these guys,' then give 'these guys' an invincible tank with perfect acceleration and handling. Really, you're just supposed to follow 'these guys' until they get to a more cinematic location. But trying to drive and shoot at them becomes impossible. Also, some of the missions were incredibly long, and having to redo multiple cutscenes on failure was pretty aggravating (bank robbery mission, I'm looking at you).

These are minor gripes, however, when you consider the story and what it succeeds at. It constantly puts you in up to your neck, and you can feel Niko's desperation as you try to dig your way out.

And, getting back to the title, GTA IV succeeds at something I have not seen in almost any video games - creating morally ambiguous choices. Most games which claim to "allow the player to make mature decisions" such as Bioshock, basically boil down to "Do you want to brutally murder this innocent person, or not?" Very rarely are there consequences (Bioshock promised these, but I found saving the little girls didn't make it any harder than killing them) for good or bad behavior, and very rarely do you ever feel confused about what to do. GTA IV breaks this. Several times in game, you're offered the option of letting someone you're supposed to kill go. Often, they're really slimy people who have it coming. That's pretty binary, but it gets better - two guys you work for, who both seem to play it straight with you, and neither of which seem like double-crossing dicks, hire you to kill each other. Which one do you kill? How do you decide? Even at the end of the game, you're allowed to make big decisions which alter the way the story plays out. It's really, really awesome.

Aside from the quibbles above, I only have one major problem with this game: there's nothing to buy! Niko and Roman are always trying to make it big - and you do! I spent half the game with $300,000+ because there was nothing to spend it on! No safehouses, no cars to buy, nothing! I got a cool suit, all the weapons & full ammo, then that was it. Once I had a huge amount of money, the game's plot stopped making sense - Niko was taking all these jobs to make money, and I'm like, "Dude, I have almost half a million dollars - why do I need this guy's measly five thousand?" I wish you could have bought more safehouses, or permanent car spawns, or buildings with missions attached (like in Vice City) - that would have added a whole lot to the game's sandbox appeal.

All in all, GTA IV was a freakin' blast, and very worth the wait and the money spent on it. Can't wait for the next GTA!

California Tortilla

2008-06-11T16:04:00.001-07:00

California Tortilla
Originally uploaded by agius.

Found a really cool place today thanks to my sister. California
Tortilla is a Mexican / burrito place with 'spunky' service. What made
it special for me was this utterly impressive array of hot sauces! I
tried 'death sauce' and 'See Dick Burn,' a play on the Dick & Jane
stories with a cute picture on the bottle. They were both delicious.

So: California Tortilla - highly recommended!

Bora Bora

2008-06-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Photo found here - kudos to John Miranda for taking it, and many like it. I want to go there. NOW.

Dammit dammit dammit!

2008-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

I expected the 3g iPhone would come out in July - I didn't expect ANOTHER $200 price cut! Gah, that sucks. Maybe I'll upgrade, maybe not - the big thing I'm excited about with iPhone 2.0 is definitely the software platform. I can't wait to see what cool games are available and what sorts of location-aware applications I can make for it.

Cell Phones and Brain Cancer

2008-06-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well - Debate Over Link Between Cellphones and Cancer Is Revived - NYTimes.com:

"There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.

But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist."

In other words: my blinding, irrational assumption has more credibility than all known biological science, and the variety of short-term studies suggesting I am wrong. We need to act now, on the basis of my irrational assumption, rather than wait for more conclusive long-term studies to bring actual data into the argument.

Screensaver Things

2008-06-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

I have had some cool screensavers. Everyone was fascinated by my Mac laptop's screensaver Soundstream, for example - a toy that made sparkly waves in response to input from the mac's microphone input. For a while I was partial to Electric Sheep - a screensaver that generated fractals through an online, Folding-at-Home style distributed processing algorithm, and whooshed them together in super-cool looking feats of video morphing.

But the coolest screensaver ever is definitely Picasa's "My Starred Photos" screensaver. The way my photo export workflow goes - download to Picasa, star the ones worthy of uploading (i.e. not blurred and noisy and ugly), upload to Flickr - results in a rich history of starred photos on my copy of Picasa. Whenever I glance a photo out of the corner of my eye, usually while doing something else, I stumble into some corner of nostalgia lane. This runs somewhere between Grant and State streets in West Lafayette, Indiana, and makes occasional stop-by's in Cabo San Lucas, the Michiana Dunes (where the picture above was taken), and various fandom conventions. Now, out in the post-college world, it is a good reminder of all the wonderful things and wonderful people I encountered at Purdue. When I look back at Purdue, I won't just think of the tough-as-nails exams, week-long coding death marches, and make-or-fail-out-of-college project deadlines. I remember the great Battle of Outer Muncie (fought with Nerf weapons), Ohayocon 2006, four straight (well, gayly aligned) years of MFM, sledding down Slater Hill, long nights of Smash-related fun, worshipping the Tesla statue at Niagara Falls, and many other incredibly fun slices of memory. It reminds me why I'm a photographer.

Thanks, everyone - and thanks, Purdue.

I'm gonna go star some more photos.

Rails - ghetto blasted?

2008-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Ever since Zed Shaw published his iconic post, "Rails is a ghetto", it's become super-hip to hate Ruby on Rails, along with iPods, Prius', and anything else that reeks of hipster fad-ism. Thanks to reddit (a site I rarely read due to the oversaturation of Ron Paul stories and cynical ranting), I stumbled across this rant about MagLev.

To be fair, I hadn't heard of MagLev before this article, and I haven't seen the presentation, since I wasn't at RailsConf (maybe next year). I was hoping for a quick rundown of what MagLev was, and perhaps some of the flaws this particular author saw in it.

He mentioned a few of the features of MagLev in passing: a shared memory cache, an OODB... well, that's it. No real description of the project.

Basically, I can sum up his entire rant in one sentence: "A 60x speedup over rails? Yeah, right." You could twitter that. Instead, a long-winded rant made its way so far up reddit that it appeared on popurls.

Honestly, I'm tired of reading speculation, guessing, and half-assed reasoning as to why Rails and any of its derived technology sucks. Will every Rails app that scales have the same kinds of issues as Twitter? I doubt it. I'm willing to bet there are certain applications where Rails is an ideal framework for building webapps, and quite a few situations where Rails is the wrong way to go.

What I would like to read, from the rails-hating community (which is now a popular clique in its own right), is an informative post detailing what problems Rails has that other platforms do not. Specific comparisons to other MVC frameworks like Django or Cake would be great - even other backends like Grails or some Java-based thingy would be cool, too. Also, delving into the C basis of Ruby and Rails for some actual snippets that seem flawed would be very informative.

For now, I'm going to go ahead and keep using Rails until it no longer seems like a great platform for the projects I'm working on.

Some Free Music for your Caturday

2008-05-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this moment to highly reccommend DJ Technics2000. I stumbled across this guy;s music while listening to DI.fm's breaks channel, and he has some really good mixes up on his site. People in my friends group would probably really appreciate the 80's pop tunes remix set.

Happy Saturday, y'all!

Rolling Stone on Christian Zionism

2008-05-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

Jesus Made Me Puke : Rolling Stone:

"'In the name of Jesus Christ,' said Fortenberry, more loudly now, 'I cast out the demon of lust!'

And the man began power-puking into his paper baggie. I couldn't see if any actual vomitus came out, but he made real hurling and retching noises.

Now the women began to pipe in. On the women's side of the chapel the noises began, and it is not hard to explain what these noises sounded like. If you've ever watched The Houston 560 or any other gangbang porn movie, that's what it sounded like, only the sounds were far more intense."

Utterly hilarious summary of a Christian Zionism retreat weekend in Texas. A good personal viewpoint to wrestle with, as opposed to the checklist of backwards thinking we normally consider with crazy right-wingers.

Here's a Daily Show interview with author Mat Taibbi:

Hat tip: Boing Boing

Holy Crapola

2008-05-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Wow... just... wow. Mario levels as timed to Jpop? I hadn't even heard of this. Hat tip: GayGamer.net

ACEN 08: God Len's final thoughts - Japanator.com - anime blog, anime podcast, manga, anime wallpapers, pictures, games, movies, and more!

2008-05-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

ACEN 08: God Len's final thoughts - Japanator.com:

"If I had to give ACEN a grade, I think it deserves a C-; it was a little less then what I expected. ACEN 08 had its problems, but it comes natural when you have that great amount of people in such a small area."

Interesting article from the Japanator. Had pictures of some of the cosplayers I missed as well - like the Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles full-suit team.

Wedding Congratulations!

2008-05-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

A hearty wedding congratulations to the couple pictured herein (well, behind Adam's huge head, anyway)! Travis and Claire, may your wedding be blessed with much happiness, and your life together be filled with great joy. </hallmark>

Weezer Music Video

2008-05-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

Count the memes, baby. Hat tip: PopURLS

Oh hey, a heron!

2008-05-22T11:20:00.001-07:00

Oh hey, a heron!
Originally uploaded by agius.

Halifax's city emotion: mild surprise. Heron was cool - he just left.
The geese hissed at me a bunch and was like "Yo, don't touch my kids,
dude!"

Anime Central 2008 Photos!

2008-05-21T13:13:00.000-07:00

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Alright, y'all, the big one! Unfortunately, because I don't have a computer of my own at the moment, this collection does not have my usual filtering for good results - there are some photos in here that are total crap, and there are many 'duplicates' which I would normally reduce ( I generally aim for 1 photo / subject ). However, quite a few of them are really good, so you might wanna check it out.

Original Photoset

Road trip home.

2008-05-20T09:34:00.001-07:00

Road trip home.
Originally uploaded by agius.

Drove home from West Lafayette yesterday. To all my friends out there,
I will miss you. We'll always have Purdue.

Now, for a long and pleasently uneventful summer.

Back in Lafayette

2008-05-18T20:38:00.001-07:00

Back in Lafayette
Originally uploaded by agius.

If only for a few hours. Acen was über-duper awesome, mostly thanks to
the crew I went with and the folks I hung out with. Sadly, nobody
recognized my Akabane cosplay, but I got lots of good pictures as
Frank West. More coming soon.

Quote: "I'm old Greeeeeeegg!"

Reg'd!!

2008-05-17T07:19:00.001-07:00

Reg'd!!
Originally uploaded by agius.

ACEN badge attempt #2

2008-05-17T05:27:00.001-07:00

ACEN badge attempt #2
Originally uploaded by agius.

They've got us parked outside this morning - dunno if that's good or
bad, but I think I've got significantly fewer people in front of me in
this morning's line.

Wish me luck!

Awesome!!

2008-05-16T18:57:00.001-07:00

Awesome!!
Originally uploaded by agius.

So, we didn'tget badges... So what? I'm having a few good drinks,
hanging with awesome friends, watching crazy-ass fighting games. Life
is good. There will be plenty of time for the convention tommorow.

Peace & love!!

Fuck this Shit!

2008-05-16T15:49:00.001-07:00

Fuck this Shit!
Originally uploaded by agius.

We quit. Maybe we'll get badges tommorow.

In line at ACEN

2008-05-16T14:06:00.001-07:00

In line at ACEN
Originally uploaded by agius.

Still in line... Somebody started throwing a beach ball around, but
that was too crazy for con security. Now we have condom balloons. Ha!

photo.jpg

2008-05-16T12:38:00.001-07:00

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by agius.

ACEN registration is down. Apparently they have no backups or paper
systems to rely on. We've been in this line for nearly an hour and a
half. Here's hoping!!

photo.jpg

2008-05-14T12:59:00.001-07:00

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by agius.

Found in Borders. Really?

Guiter Hero IV: Rock Band Knockoff

2008-05-13T18:20:00.000-07:00

This is stupid:

Guitar Hero IV will follow closely in the footsteps of Rock Band, offering new instruments including a bass, microphone, and six-piece drumset that includes two cymbals. It is unknown whether or not the Guitar Hero IV instruments and Rock Band instruments will be cross-compatible.

The only thing Guitar Hero had going for it, and Activision just has to wreck it.

Rock Band is a four-piece music game. Guitar Hero is a one-piece music game (two, if you count the bass). In order for Guitar Hero to avoid the inevitable comparisons to Rock Band, it has to differentiate itself - it must seem like a different sort of game to people, otherwise feature-matrices will be lined up, and Guitar Hero will seem lacking. I felt like Guitar Hero 3 tried to do this - maybe they didn't pull it off perfectly, but it was Neversoft's first Guitar Hero, so I cut them slack. They had three big things that Rock Band did not have - guitar battles, licensed characters, and guitar songs. The guitar battles and licensed characters didn't overly concern me, but it seemed like having guitar songs was a major point of differentiation between Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Rock Band, being a four-piece game, has to have four-piece songs. Stuff like "Orange Crush" or "Don't Fear the Reaper" is a perfect fit for it. You cannot put "Cliffs of Dover" or "YYZ" in Rock Band, because there are no vocals. You also cannot put stuff like "Through the Fire and Flames" and "Laid to Rest" on Rock Band, because the single bass pedal on the drum kit will not support death-metal style drumming. Also, Guitar Hero 3 seemed to take pains to make the expert guitar parts unnecessarily hard - for example "The Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden. I doubt all those triplets were entirely necessary.

So it seemed Guitar Hero was differentiating by focusing on crazy-ass guitar playing, and leaving the "other instruments" to Rock Band. But now, they're stripping that point of differentiation, and making it basically the same game as Rock Band - and that makes me sad. I am not as good at vocals or drums as I am at guitars, and I liked the impossibly difficult guitar songs. Rock Band's songs seemed much more generic and pop-ish by comparison.

However, the song creator and character customization in the aforementioned article sound really freakin' cool, so it shouldn't be a total loss. Sounds like I'll buy it.

Get!!!

2008-05-11T08:32:00.001-07:00

Get!!!
Originally uploaded by agius.

2008-05-11T08:17:00.001-07:00

Now, the fun part.

Grad things

2008-05-11T07:57:00.001-07:00

Good lord, there were a million Pham doctorates. I think there should
be alimit on how many names, total, you can read at one of these
ceremonies.

Dang... No shortage of Vet doc's either...

At least the speech to the candidates from new Pres Cordova was cool.
She said we were just "a picture of you in a robe with your diploma on
Facebook " away from graduating. Cute, but it does seem like she
understands the students here.

People are getting chatty here on the bleachers. Listening to names
gets tiring at around an hour or so.

Wool, graduation! After this, I'm headed to Boiler Market for a beer
and some pizza.

Sent from my iPhone

photo.jpg

2008-05-11T06:26:00.001-07:00

photo.jpg
Originally uploaded by agius.

Graduationblogging!

2008-05-11T06:01:00.001-07:00

Graduationblogging!
Originally uploaded by agius.

Done with school, except for the crazy ceremony. More on that live, as
it happens! Well, probably not - maybe reflection later. Stay tuned!

Downtown Chicago

2008-05-05T13:29:00.001-07:00

Downtown Chicago
Originally uploaded by agius.

Very pretty area near Lincoln park zoo, which we visited today.

Graduation Things

2008-05-05T06:50:00.001-07:00

Graduation Things
Originally uploaded by agius.

Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco? - (37signals)

2008-04-25T05:50:00.000-07:00

Are you sure you want to be in San Francisco? - (37signals):

"The flush availability of other people’s money is simply too tempting. When you’re not spending your own money, it’s easy to splash on a big open office on day one, a staff of 10 in no time, and have few worries about paying the bills on the 1st of the month. It takes away much of the urgency to make money that I think is critical to build sustainable businesses."

Obviously DHH is in the anti-Bay crew. 37signals is based in Chicago, with a few workers all over the planet.

But to me, all these guys talking about how bad the Bay Area is for you, your company, your dog... it sounds a little defensive. Like when your friend pulls up in a Lamborghini Diablo, and you start talking about how much better the mileage is on your Honda Civic.

iPhone!

2008-04-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I got one. I'm hoping I'll be able to develop webapps and video games for it. It does a few things that other phones do really well - music, pictures, and video (though I haven't played with the video yet myself). Podcasts might be cool if I can ever get into those. But the really big thing that the iPhone does really well that no one else does (to my knowledge) is putting the internet in your pocket. Anywhere I go, Gmail, Gcal, Twitter, and the blogs are right there on the home screen. NYT, CNN, Wired, Wikipedia? Yeah, I got that. Youtube, stock tickers, weather widget? I'm game. Crazy javascripty webapps like todoist and remember the milk? As His Steveness would say: "boom." I used to need a laptop to do all that stuff - now I need a pockettop. Which is good, since my laptop died.
More sexy unboxing pics on my flickr.

A Very Cyberpunk Christmas

2008-04-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

This Christmas, I asked for something I haven't asked for in a long time: books! Since I began college, my time has been taken up by coding, friends, and other unusual projects, and my reading dropped like 3rd period French. Blogs, news, and the occasional IM thread were all I consumed in the written languages. This year, I wanted to change that - to get back to some of the epic levels of knowledge-consumption and idea-decoding I managed back in high school. Reading was a form of escapism back in high school - this year I wanted to indulge it as an independent pleasure.

To that end, I asked for books for Christmas, and boy did I get 'em. And now they're done. Here's a quick list:

The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks.
Overclocked, by Cory Doctorow.
Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Mona Lisa Overdrive, also by William Gibson.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes - a collection of short stories by Stephen King.
Snow Crash, by Niel Stephenson.

They were all good reads. You may notice a theme (or have picked up on it from the title of this post) - cyberpunk and sci-fi stuff. Most of these are books I read highly endorsing reviews of from Boing Boing - the directory of wonderful things of which Mr. Doctorow is a blogger. Nightmares & Dreamscapes was a recommendation from a friend, and a darn good one at that. The Zombie Survival Guide was something I had been meaning to read.

Overclocked, Neuromancer, Mona Lisa, and Snow Crash were incredible. Real epics of sci-fi, I would say. Full of wonderful and downright crazy ideas that shake one's vision of humanity, consciousness, and the future. Snow Crash in particular makes one reconsider society, humanity, and the nature of thought. Overclocked does some crazy things with sentience and post-scarcity ideas. The William Gibson novels are written in an amazing staccato which I have only seen in the likes of Hemmingway, and Gibson's ability to tie together hundreds of seemingly unrelated plot threads is awe-inspiring. Nightmares and Dreamscapes had a few terrifying tales, and many interesting and engrossing stories full of well-written characters.

The Survival Guide, I was a little disappointed in, if only for the wasted opportunity. It is apparent from reading that very little to no research was put into its writing, and they chose one explanation and modus operandi of zombies from a swath of science fantasy creations. If the book had done honest research on survivalist strategies, the psychology of small groups, guerrillas, and weapons, it would have been much improved. The same for if it had described ways of dealing with different types of zombies, rather than a cheesy journal of fictional "outbreaks" throughout history.

Overall, I'm glad to say my reading quotient for this year is up about 500% from the previous three. I hope to keep going - reading is a valuable and entertaining hobby, and I really think it helps keep my brain tinkering along and learning. Feel free to post any book suggestions, arguments or discussions in the comments!

If you were starting over...

2008-03-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

So, a serious question to anyone out there who reads my occasional shenanigans... If you were about to completely start your life over, what would you change? Where would you go?

I ask because I'm in such a position. For those who don't know, I've accepted a position with a company out in Silicon Valley. The pay is good, the location is heaven, and the world is fresh. I will be starting over once again - I will form a whole new group of friends, create new routines, find new interests... I will be making a wholly new life for myself.

I'm not worried. I've done this twice before (once in high school and once starting at Purdue) and I've managed to build what I consider a good life each time. I've found that when I put my mind to something, I can usually accomplish something pretty cool.

So the question is this - with a good job and a fresh start, what should I go for? Where should I set my sights? What do I want this new life to be like?

So that's the question I would pose, out of curiosity, to you. I am interested in what my friends would do, given the chance to start over.

Breaking News: Bush Loves Furries After All

2008-03-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

See horrifying photo above. Check out the original Fake Steve post for some photocrank-induced hilarity.

ElfQuest Things

2008-03-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Boing Boing posted a link to ElfQuest, stating that it was being put online for free. A friend of mine had said a long while ago in that the comic had been a change of direction in his life, and a major contributor of where he is currently. I think I half-remembered this conversation on reading the entry from Cory Doctorow, and decided I should definitely check it out.

By late Saturday night I had finished the original series - though because issues 11-20 aren't on the web site yet I had to resort to slightly less legal means of acquiring it. Still, needless to say, I'm now a huge fan, and I'll be anxiously awaiting the rest of the series going online.

So, what makes the series awesome? No spoilers to worry about - it's pretty simple, really.

First off, the art is just ridiculously cool. The series was originally released in 1978, as artist Wendy Pini put it "as a love letter to Japan." She got into manga before it was cool, and her art style was a fusion of western and eastern influences.

Secondly, the world it's set in is amazing. The World of Two Moons is an alternate Earth, but the setting is in the Cromagnon era. There aren't knights and castles all over the place, and in fact no society is advanced past the tribal stage. The main characters are a group of hunter-gatherer elves who have bonded with a pack of dire wolves for mutual protection and survival.

Third, I fell in love with the characters. They are fleshed-out and develop over time. No one in the series is one-dimensional, and as events appear throughout the story we get to explore how the characters react to different scenarios, and see the various sides of these creatures.

Fourth, the story itself isn't one-dimensional. There's no clear Aesop after any given part of the story or after the whole. It kept me guessing (often wrongly) throughout the whole thing. Additionally, it doesn't 'talk down' to the reader as Wendy put it. There are violence and sex, but they are not gratuitous, and the comic doesn't flinch away from them.

Elfquest was quite a ride, and it really made my weekend. I've been hesitantly suggesting it to friends - I think it's great, but I recognize that it might just appeal to my unusual sensibilities. So, if you're interested, check it out at the link above.

On Skiing

2008-03-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Skiing this week was good. There was only one time I really got out of control - fortunately, I managed to stop myself by using my face.

Pics to come.

No Gods or Kings: Objectivism in BioShock

2008-02-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

No Gods or Kings: Objectivism in BioShock:

"Levine said he actually wrote the story of BioShock as a fan of Ayn Rand's precepts.

'I'm probably way more similar to her in my terms of how I think about religion and politics than any other philosophers,' he said.

But Levine believes that Rand would reject that take on philosophy, that Rand believed it was 'her way or the highway.'

So BioShock wasn't meant really to be a game about Rand's beliefs, but more about her intensity.

'I wasn't setting out to make a game about objectivism, I was setting out to make a game about someone who had a very strong belief in a philosophy that was similar to this philosophy.

'It's a cautionary tale about wholesale, unquestioning belief in something.'"

Even athiests are prone to the ideas of dogmatism - as proven by the virtiol spit out by Rand and her philosophical followers such as Terry Goodkind. Reading some of their more volatile rants, it's easy to see how dogmatic one can become with "absolutist" beliefs such as objectivism. I loved Bioshock for exploring this aspect of objectivism, and for bringing up the philosophy without abjectly worshiping the shadow of Atlas.

Like Levine, I don't think there is any single philosophy which can be used to guide all moral and ethical decisions we face in life. Everything breaks down after a point. So far in my life I've found the best way to make decisions is to trust instincts and intuition - the high-level calculating one's brain does behind the scenes, factoring and weighting inputs from as far back as pre-memory childhood, and generally encompassing all the various philosophies I've considered. When intuition fails to provide an answer to any given dilemma, it's generally because of unique situations or factors that bear further study.

But getting back to Bioshock - I think it's major ethical and moral innovation is not in the system of rescuing or destroying the monstrous children known as Little Sisters. Such a binary decision between "save the kids" and "murder the kids" doesn't present ethical shades any less clear than those in Grand Theft Auto. The game rewards you handsomely for saving the kids, offsetting the loss of the precious resource ADAM you face for not killing them. So it's not really a hard choice - just, do you want to be moral, or not?

The ethical dilemma in Bioshock that I found innovative was the conflict between the objectivist creator of Rapture - Andrew Ryan - and the anarcho-mobster Fontaine that tried to take him down. Is Fontaine any better or worse than Ryan? Could you provide some kind of better alternative to an addicted and horrifically warped populace? Is there any saving Rapture?

I may sit down and play the game through a third time, having read this. Such a great FPS.

Going to the Valley

2008-02-15T09:13:00.001-08:00

Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch on the Silicon Valley vs. Seattle debate:

Sure Seattle is beautiful (Kelman talks about lakes and outdoor stuff a lot in his post). And if you want to have a balanced, healthy lifestyle, that’s a great place to do it. If you don’t think you have what it takes to make it in Silicon Valley, maybe Seattle or other mini-tech hubs is the place for you. But the best of the best come to Silicon Valley to see if they’re as good as the legends that came before them. It’s a competitive advantage to be here. And if you aren’t willing to take advantage of every possible advantage to make your crazy startup idea work, perhaps you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.

I've never felt so anime about going to the Valley. I've known that that's what I should do since reading Ev Williams' article on the subject.

But the way Arrington puts it, it's like hitting the Pokemon League for real. You go there to prove you're the best. I don't think I'm as competitive as people make the Valley out to be - but I'll take the chance to emulate my favorite Shonen series and note that I plan on being the Hokage of web apps, the Pokemon Master of the internet, and the Pirate King of the west coast. Kicking ass starts in T-3 months.

4th Hokage
Originally uploaded by caleighrg.

Politics in class

2008-02-12T10:33:00.001-08:00

My HIST 590B class - history of the dead and undead - is an interesting study of ghosts, myths, legends, and concepts of death in a historical perspective. This week, we read about medieval views of ghosts, stemming from Augustine onwards.

In class today, however, we talked politics. Our teacher, who wouldn't say if she supported any of our potential politicians, started the discussion and asked around for various opinions. She phrased almost everything as "I do not support position X, but how can you support opposing position Y? Do you not see anything wrong with that?" It was pretty funny to watch - all the Republicans in the class (which was most of the class - stupid Indiana) touted the same talking points repeated by Hannity, Limbaugh and the other frigtarded jokers of the Republican noise machine. It seemed most people hadn't thought about any of the issues surrounding the Iraq war beyond the talking points they had heard.

A big issue that came up three or four times in 30 minutes of discussion was miscommunication. Our teacher kept bringing in examples to challenge students to compare our current situation to historical events. Students would then misunderstand what she was talking about, and she would miss the fact that they were on two different subjects. It seems people tend to hear what they want to in political debates, rather than actually listening to anyone challenging their viewpoint. Or they're all just very poor communicators, and lack any sort of articulation. I'm not sure which is better.

In any case, I'd say it was more fun than our regular discussions, which can be drier than good gin. Except that I have to move to the other side of the room now - I can't sit next to Huckabee supporters. *shudder*

Ze on V-day

2008-02-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

Ze Frank: Valentine's Day

Old content, but still funny. Every now and then I miss the Sports Racer crowd and the League of Awesomeness.

TV News is a Shithole

2008-02-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry for cursing. Anyway, here's a letter I sent to NBC today:

Hi NBC -

This morning, I gave you a chance. For the last 2-3 years, I have been so fed up with the stupidity of TV news networks (starting Fox, then spreading like an infection to CNN, ABC, and other networks) that I have never tuned into the stuff. I get all my news from blogs these days, since at least their opinion is transparent and they link back to sources of detail on the things they mention.

This morning, I gave you a chance. My house was too quiet, and I wanted to hear about Super Tuesday. I flipped through news channels and stumbled upon your network, and Kate Hudson was talking about Super Tuesday. Golden.

I could bear it for almost a minute before the waves of idiocy forced me to turn off my TV, lest it leak stupidity all over my carpet. Kate finished the three sentences about Super Tuesday, then went to report on some other headlines: environmentalists suing the military over too-powerful sonar technology, scientists being concerned about new indicators for global warming, and US monuments being left open by lax security.

The whole time, Tim Russert and the other chump on that show was MAKING FUN OF KATE FOR REPORTING THE NEWS! They were mocking her reporting, being sarcastic, and generally interrupting news for their stupidity.

There's a couple things wrong with this:

1 - Tim chimed in as soon as he heard the word 'environmentalists.' He said, "I care about our national security more than whales." That's a fine opinion, but he obviously had never heard of the piece on sonar technology, had no clue what the details of it were, but was already comfortable interrupting the news to tell the US his gut reaction. And being a sarcastic dick about it. I call it 'willful ignorance,' and it is the greatest sin we can commit in the information age.

2 - He then proceeded to mock Kate openly about global warming, saying repeatedly, "And tonight's news: polar bear cubs! Oh, the polar bear cubs!" Does he think that's funny? It's so 4th-grade. But the fact is that if I saw that happening in a bar, I'd hit the man, no doubt. IT IS NOT OKAY TO TREAT ANYONE THIS WAY EVER, let alone live on a 'respected' news show!

3 - Did I mention Tim was INTERRUPTING THE NEWS?! Isn't this a NEWS SHOW?! Why would anyone watch the Today show except that they wanted to hear about the news? And Tim was blocking that with his unwitty invective.

So, I gave you all a chance. And you know what? NBC, with it's Tim Russert, has reaffirmed my faith in blogs, and confirmed for me that all TV news is insipid twattle. Worthless trash. I hope I see Tim apologizing to Kate live on the air - but I will be seeing it on Crooks and Liars, or YouTube, or some other online outlet. I certainly won't be tuning in to your trashy network again.

Good day.

It's SNOWIN'!

2008-02-01T05:13:00.000-08:00

Good news: It's snowin'.
Bad news: School's still on.
Good news: I ain't goin'.

Bad news: ...?

Beach Photos from Australia

2008-01-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Really, some of the most awesome beach photography I've ever seen.

Estelucy's beach photos

I have got to find some way to get to Australia. Thanks to the Flickr blog for pointing out this wonderful artist's work.

Weight Watchers

2008-01-27T08:04:00.001-08:00

You’re a fickle exerciser.

You become bored easily, dislike the monotony of exercise, and are easily distracted. Make sure you include variety and some interaction in every workout, and change your workouts often to avoid burnout. You might do well with a personal trainer who could keep you focused.

Most importantly, don’t hammer away on a single exercise machine for too long; jump around. Choose a health club where there are plenty of classes, but make sure they’re challenging and won’t let you daydream in the back. “Join a spinning class where a leader is guiding you,” advises Shawn Arent, PhD, CSCS, director of the human performance laboratory at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Try to make exercise intellectually stimulating; walking tours are a perfect option for you, says Jeremy Shore, CPT, a weight management specialist in New York. A dog would also likely be a boon for you.

Seems it takes me about two weeks to get bored with any given workout and stop permanently. Even DDR no longer addicts me the way it used to. Personal trainers are out - I don't have the money and hate the gym. Dogs are out due to housing and messiness.

What physically active things do you guys find entertaining? If anyone wants to do sports, hiking, backpacking, whatever - gimme a call.

Desktop VR

2008-01-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

This will blow your mind.

How come all the cool stuff seems to be happening at Carnegie Mellon?

Journaling: worthwhile?

2008-01-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

I have read Gretchen's post over at The Happiness Project - about a year or so after I started keeping a one-sentence journal. Well, it wasn't so much a one-sentence-per-day journal as a few bullet points representing the major events of the day.

My last post was in November. I completely ran out of time for personal enterprises, and dropped a number of good habits in favor of sleep and sanity-retention practices. I haven't yet picked it up again - I'm trying to establish some other habits, and as the Zen Habits folk say, one habit at a time. When I think back on the journal, though, I can't remember ever using it as a reference or pouring through it in a huge nostalgia trip. I think I only looked through it once or twice, ever.

So my question is - besides reviewing the events of the day, is a journal really a useful, worthwhile habit to keep? What is its purpose? Do I need it to help remember my life, or are pictures, posts, and friends enough?

The Final Project

2008-01-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

I went to CGT 411 today - the start of my last project at Purdue. Well, apart from my other classes anyway. I'm really excited about what we're doing. Our team is awesome - we've already got action items, research, and development going. We're two steps ahead and hoping to accelerate.

Wish us luck!

Gurren Lagann Things

2007-12-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

I love my anime. I've sorely missed it this last semester, so it was surely a pleasure to sit down and marathon Gurren Lagann, finally. At 27 half-hour episodes, this is a pretty doable series even for the time-pressed. One episode (declared as the summary episode) can be skipped, provided one watches the series in a short enough time span to remember most of it.

(Image stolen from this place, by the way. Thanks, Google Image Search!)

As a friend of mine described it, Gurren Lagann is the polar opposite of Evangelion. As dark and foreboding as Evangelion was, Gurren Lagann is uplifting and enjoyable. The main characters are pretty awesome, well-written and detailed in the later episodes. The oddity and spontaneity of the early episodes can be easily ascribed to the half-hour format - Gurren Lagann gets more story in any given 24min episode than Naruto has in any given month of releases. But in the later episodes, they manage to cram in a lot of character detail and drama as well, which really fleshes things out and makes for a much more interesting series.

This series involves young lads piloting giant mecha. However, it's pretty much nothing like Gundam or other more hardcore mecha series in that details like 'science,' 'materials,' 'repairs,' and other such nonsense don't matter at all. This series doesn't have time for those things - the other elements of the story far outclass such nuisances.

The awesome level of the show steps up by leaps and bounds, fairly reliably, every 2-3 episodes. Scale, man. I can say no more, lest I spoil plot details, but watch the show and you'll get what I mean.

It does kind of go off the rail in the last couple episodes, but more like you would expect of any good anime, and less like Evangelion. Some prospect of sanity is maintained, even into the final battles - just enough to make sure you know what's going on, who they're fighting, and what's required to win.

I found the series pretty dang enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys anime, regardless of anime experience level. Give it a go!

Japanese Voices in Games

2007-11-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

Naruto Purists Rejoice! - GayGamer.net:

"The official Japanese Naruto voice cast is now available via Xbox Live Marketplace as a free download (only Silver account required!). Just boot up your game, and select XboxLive Marketplace from the main menu, download the Japanese voice package, then activate it in the options and enjoy!"

I will now proceed to buy this game. Been waiting on a good fighting game for 360, and if Ubisoft is being awesome enough to give us Japanese voices, you can count me in.

Ubisoft -- you win.