Firefang Studios

Recently Martin Streek died, and that makes me a bit sad because, even though I never really knew the guy, I’ve listened to him ever since I reached musical maturity, back in 1994. I always thought the guy was really cool, and when I played around with hosting a stupid little Shoutcast station for my Internet friends I distinctly remember trying to emulate Martin, even stealing a line he always used to use: “Coming up next... something good!”

When you listened to Martin on the radio, he would be telling these amazing stories over the air, and the most incredible part is that if you ever went to hang out at the Edge storefront studio during the Thursday Thirty (free pizza!) he would be telling these stories on the radio, then he would turn to the people in the studio and tell a different amazing story.

He was more than just a great radio personality, he was a great personality in the truest sense of the word, and whether you were listening on the radio or in the clubs, it was always a great mix. Martin started working at The Edge back when it was known as “The Spirit of Radio” and world-renowned for its avante-garde attitute. Martin still embodies that spirit.

The Edge is currently playing a three-hour tribute to Martin, so I’m trying to keep a playlist of the songs they’ve chosen. Here it is:

• The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
• Depeche Mode - World in My Eyes
• Kyuss - Gardenia
• Die Mannequin - Make it Witchu (live acoustic)
• Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria
• Dead Can Dance - The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
• The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon
• The Beloved - The Sun Rising
• Ministry - So What (extended)
• Tool - Fourty-Six & 2
• Nine Inch Nails - Terrible Lie
• Rage Against the Machine - Renegades of Funk
• Queens of the Mother Fucking Stone Age - Mexicola
• Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
• Underworld - Born Slippy (.NUXX)
• Bob Marley & The Wailers - Three Little Birds
• Joy Division - Atmosphere
• Consolidated - Butyric Acid RU486
• Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise
• The Clash - White Riot
• The Jam - That’s Entertainment
• Nirvana - Aneurysm (live)
• Bauhaus - She’s in Parties
• Jane’s Addiction - Mountain Song
• The Cure - Lullaby
• Japan - Visions of China
• Portishead - Roads
• Faith No More - Last Cup of Sorrow
• Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
• The Church - Under the Milky Way
• Massive Attack - Protection

Also worth noting is a tribute to Martin by David Marsden. David Marsden works for 94.9 The Rock in Oshawa now, but he was the guy who originally hired Martin for the Video Roadshow way back when. You can listen to the full five hour tribute in MP3 format by following that link.

Goodbye Martin. I never knew you, but I’ll miss you.

Update: The Edge has posted the playlist, so I’ve filled in the songs I was missing.

Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Now that you’ve had two years to read my last post, are you ready for another? I have to warn you, this post is just for the geeks.

I found a new language called Fortress, and it includes some pretty awesome features that I’ve been hoping for in a language for quite a while. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include some other features that I really like to have in my programming languages. So that got me thinking about what I would really like to have in my dream programming language.

None of the ideas in this list are really revolutionary, it’s just that there’s no language I know of that contains this specific combination of features. So, if you want to know the kind of language you’ll need to make for me to make me happy, read on!

Multi-paradigm languages

"Use the language that best suits the problem" is an oft-cited critique when programmers ask for more features in their favourite language. But what happens when your program needs to solve more than one problem?

Of course, interoperability with other languages is also nice (in fact, I could not switch to another language that didn't interop with C++) but unless the languages are so similar that they're interchangeable, it's only a partial solution.

Native execution

Maybe one day we'll have a virtual machine which is efficient enough that we won't care about the overhead and is portable to any platform. We don't seem to be there yet, and it's honestly not a feature I care about enough to prioritize.

VMs are fine, but there's no reason languages should be tied to a certain VM, or vice-versa. If you're designing a language, VMs should be treated as just another target, like x86, PowerPC, or ARM; if you're designing a VM, it should be possible to compile any language to run on your VM.

Features which are written in their own language

for(;;) loops can be cumbersome, so new languages have added a foreach loop. These new loops are hard-coded into the language syntax and only work with containers that implement a specific interface. Who decided that it would be a good idea to hard-code algorithms into the language syntax? What if I need to use a slightly different algorithm, like a parallel-processing-friendly loop? Are we going to hard-code that into the syntax too? It's ridiculous; leave algorithms to the language users and library implementors.

Operator overloading

This is related to writing your features in your own language. Few will argue that overloading the + operator for string concatenation is a bad idea, but some languages will hard-code these overloaded operators into the compiler and suggest that the users of the language aren't smart enough to decide when it's a good idea to overload operators.

After solving some calculus problems in Java (or Lisp!) you too will agree that overloaded operators can be a good thing.

Languages which are designed to grow

Much of this is achieved by writing your features in your own language, but it's an important point to keep in mind specifically. When C++ was first released, it had a relatively elegant syntax with only a few ugly cysts as the result of C-compatibility. When it was standardized in 1998, the new -- and very important -- features sullied the elegant syntax due the the requirement that the language be compatible with older C++ code; new features had to add new meanings to old keywords and punctuation. C++09 is adding more features, and they're very nice features which I will use a lot, but the syntax is becoming so obscure that it's nearly incomprehensible.

When most of your language is written as libraries, old code can be compiled with old libraries, and new code can be compiled with new libraries, and you don't have to forfeit clarity in future versions of your language.

Scope is good, pollution is bad

The min/max and MessageBox macros defined in <windows.h> frustrate the hell out of me, because they keep polluting my code. Keep this in mind when building a language which is designed to grow!

Garbage collection is not panacea

Garbage collection is great, but it's not the solution to all of life's problems. There's no reason to implement garbage collection as a core feature of the language when it can be implemented as a library. Instead of making GC a language feature and writing:

Foo foo = new Foo();

We can make GC a library feature and write:

gc<Foo> foo = new Foo();

The four extra characters are well worth the extra flexibility we give the programmers. Remember, memory isn't the only resource we have to manage!

Allocating variables on the stack

This goes hand-in-hand with the criticism of garbage collection. If you can allocate your variables on the stack, you don't need to manage them at all! What's more, you can write deterministic destructors. What does this mean? This means that you don't need to remember to close your file handles, because they'll automatically get closed by the destructor as soon as the variable goes out of scope.

In a language that allocates everything on the heap, you need to explicitly close that file. And you better not forget to add that try/finally block around all of your file access!

Multiple inheritance

Even critics of multiple inheritance admit that there is one very useful special case of multiple inheritance: interfaces. Unfortunately, languages which only support interfaces don't support convenience functions. If your interface specifies the +, =, and += operators, why should you have to duplicate the code for the += operator for every class that implements that interface? Didn't we all agree that code duplication is A Bad Thing?

Private details should remain private

In C++, we're forced to publish all of our internal details with our interface, which makes the interface more difficult to process for the end-users of our code. It would be nice if the class could be extended privately, without the overhead and inelegance of a pimpl.

A stable ABI would be really, really nice

Really, it would be nice if I didn't have to use a C interface to access my own dynamically linked library.

A comprehensive standard library

Using almost any language other than C++ can often feel like a dream (at first, until other limitations are hit) simply because so much boilerplate work is done for you in the standard library. You have to look no farther than the std::string class to find some obvious missing functions: split, begins/ends_with, trim, to_upper/lower.

Strongly typed languages

I've done my fair share of web programming, and languages designed for web programming have some features which make them more suitable for that domain (like a comprehensive standard library, the ability to be interpreted, and the ability to mix the code into XML PIs) but one "helpful" feature of most of these languages which never actually helps is weak typing. The time it saves me from having to declare my variables has never outweighed the time I've lost by tracking down typos in my variable names.

See you again in two years.

-Rick-

You know I’ve been neglecting my blog when I write all of this up and it takes me five days to realize that it would make a good blog post.

Okay, it’s been half a year since I’ve posted. Don’t worry, I haven’t been cheating on you with another reader base. I’ve just, well, I’ve been busy, see? No no, it’s nothing you did. It’s... it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve had a lot of things going on.

For instance, remember my little cult? Well, it imploded, and I took on the task of sheltering the refugees.

I’ve also been ultra-busy with work. We’ve got an awful lot of content to get into Hegemony before the Independent Games Festival, and not a lot of time to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the work, and to a certain extent I love the pressure, it just means I’m going to have to spend less time with you, gentle readers.

However, I thought I’d tell you about our little field trip earlier in the week. We went off to a foley studio to get some sounds recorded, and Rob decided to bring along a video camera. Naturally, I ended up filming a video blog. (What would you have done?)

It really gives you some respect for the professional foley guys when you try to do this stuff yourself. They invited us to help with a few sounds — simple things — for instance, recording group marching sounds. You really have no idea how difficult it is to march on the spot, always with your heels first, in sync with a video, always on the right spot of dirt, without breathing too much or making incidental thumps, squeaks, or slaps with your shoes. I mean, we could do it, but that was the easy stuff!

Anyway, enjoy watching me act silly in our video blog (or as the hip kids call it, a vlog), as I drag our company’s professionalism into the dirt!

-Rick-

I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?

I just got home, and in the (paraphrased) lyrics of Coldplay, Gan put a smile upon my face.

Tonight, I decided to treat myself to dinner at the Richtree in the BCE Place. It’s open ’till two in the morning which suits me well, say thank ya’. Fran’s is closer to me, and open 24 hours, but I was also looking for an excuse to read the seventh Dark Tower book somewhere that wasn't in my apartment, and Fran’s isn't a very inducive place to read (in other words, I wanted to get out and be alone).

As an aside, if you recall, I decided to read Hearts in Atlantis, Everything’s Eventual, Eyes of the Dragon, and The Stand before finishing the series. So I’ve finished them, and they were wonderful. When I cracked open the very sexy hard cover of Book Seven and saw that he quoted Trent Reznor on the first page, my immediate response was “I’m going to enjoy this book.” So far it hasn't let me down. In fact, he referenced the other books I decided to read in the first quarter of the book (a couple were subtle, and the other two were major). However, he just mentioned Insomnia as a very important book to the Tower, so maybe I'm not as done with Stephen King after this book as I had previously thought.

So I enjoyed dinner: a plate of gratin, a big cup of Earl Grey, and a slice of cheese cake; while enjoying my book. After that, I sat (reclined, laid) on the edge of the fountain in the BCE Place. I like water, and I like the BCE Place because even though it’s inside, it feels like it’s outside; so it’s a nice place to read.

Once I finished Part Three (of Five, in case you were wondering), I decided to head back home. The BCE Place is a bit of a walk from my apartment, but it’s connected to the PATH, which I can use to get most of the way home without walking through the cold and snow. For those of you unfamiliar with the PATH, it’s a 27-kilometre network of pedestrian tunnels beneath the office towers of downtown Toronto which is mostly filled with shops. I enjoy walking through it because it’s sort of a labyrinth and it’s really easy to get lost in, even with the maps. It’s also got a certain creepy (or do I mean ‘unfound’?) quality to it when all the shops are closed.

So I’m walking home along the BEAM *ahem* along the PATH when I walk through one of the many underground food courts and hear something that sounds like a television, maybe some show on CBC or PBS. This doesn’t surprise me; often some of the TVs will be left on the news or sports channels, probably for the cleaning crew to listen to while they’re working. But as I’m walking by and listening, I hear this:

Oh, Theresa was her favourite, aye! No doubt! For hours now she would crawl about on her hands and knees with her ass in the air, licking into the corners, praying to some obscure god — not even the Man-Jesus — for forgiveness of who knew what as she did this, her penance. Sometimes she got splinters in her tongue—

That’s when I stopped dead in my tracks. It wasn’t, was it? I walked back and listened a bit more.

—was gone. The interior of her neat little cottage was gone. Everything was gone, lost in the curtains of shifting pink light. For the first time in weeks, the wizard’s glass had gone blank.

It was! It was Wizard and Glass, Book Four of the Dark Tower series! Somebody was listening to the book on tape! I listened a while longer, leaning against the outside of a lunch bar, my copy of Book Seven in hand, listening to the confrontation between Rhea of Cöos and Jonas. I had placed the sound from behind the counter of a closed coffee shop, and after some time I saw somebody walk out from behind the back section and smile at me. I smiled back and held up my copy of Book 7, to which he let out a brief chortle and responded “Wicked”.

I had a conversation with this guy — starting conversations has never been my strong suit, but I figured it was worth it — and he was a really cool guy. I never caught his name — I’m not very good at executing conversations either — but I’m sure I’ll remember the encounter every time I pass that coffee shop from now on, may it do ya’.

Say thankee sai.

-Rick-

Can I get a Gawd-bomb?

Merry Christmas, and all that. Also, a Happy Birthday to me (yesterday).

Okay, so I’m in my new apartment. Actually, I've been in my new apartment for almost a month. That's pretty much why I haven't been posting - I don’t have any commute to work anymore, so I don't have a scheduled time to write a post. My progress through The Stand has pretty much come to a stand still as well. It, ah, also doesn’t help much that my boss got us addicted to World of Warcraft by buying us accounts as sort of a Christmas bonus.

I’m enjoying it here. Had a Christmas gathering/housewarming party last week (thanks to Sean, Dave, Tim, Ryan, Ashley and Becca for coming, and extra thanks to people who got me gifts; you really didn’t need to). I've also got great curtains now (thanks to the seamstress that made those, aka, my mom).

There’s really not much else to say, though. I’ve been doing a lot of boring things like dishes and grocery shopping. I do feel a lot better about myself now - I was a bit ashamed about being almost 23, out of college, and still living with my mom.

That’s not to say it doesn’t feel weird. I went back “home” to realize that it wasn’t, in fact, home anymore. My cat is also a little depressed about the move. She’s been sulking around, hasn’t been eating much, and yells at me every time I get back from work. She does enjoy watching the cars drive by my window, though.

Anyway, I'm going to go make a microwave dinner, like a real bachelor.

-Rick-

Last Christmas I gave you my heart... why am I singing that?

Hey Post, yeah you. Hey Post Posty Post Post Post, all of my fears came true.

I saw the Nine Inch Nails show on Thursday and, suffice it to say, it was absolutely amazing. I won’t talk about it too much here, but you might find it interesting to know that he did a video montage of Iraq and George Bush (and some other things) during Right Where It Belongs. He also stopped between songs to say that it’s nice to be back, that this has been a fucked up year in a lot of ways for a lot of people, and how much he appreciates us coming to see the show. Queens of the Stone Age and Death From Above 1979 were pretty good too.

Now, I have something very important to say: there is a very cute puppy on this subway car right now.

So, moving. Moving seems to be an expensive endeavour. I’ve already got most of my kitchen stuff (pots and pans, including a couple nice cast iron pans, dishes, utensils, I’m still on the lookout for a spice rack I like). I’ve got a bed frame, which means I can use my futon for a couch for a while, at least, once I have a mattress. I should mention that my mom has been generous enough to pitch in on some of this stuff, which I feel a little bit bad about because, you know, I’m not the one in debt, but I’ll live with myself. After all, she’s paying for it with my rent.

And there’s still stuff I need to buy. A microwave, a decent TV (although I’ve been wondering if I should just save up the money to get a decent projector, since I only ever need to use it for video games and movies. Plus, how cool would it be if I framed the projector screen and hung it like a painting?). I’ll need a (bagel) toaster and a kettle, fabric for my curtains, I’ll need to put down a deposit to, you know, get electricity. I imagine I’ll spend $1000 on my first grocery bill just because of all the condiments, spices, non-perishables, and cleaning products that you don’t usually have to buy.

Oh, and keep in mind that I may buy these things at any moment. Saying that is my way of stopping some of you generous bastards from spending money on me.

For those of you following my reading habits, I’m now half-way through The Stand. That puts me on schedule to finish it in about a month and a half, when I finally get to read the last Dark Tower book. (Oh, and The Stand is pretty awesome so far).

One last thing, this week is the birthday of Ashley and Kat. Happy birthday to you two (although I don’t think Kat will read this).

Talk to you next week.

-Rick-

sig++

Happy Halloween! And I’ve got a new campic for you, so that’s your treat.

Well, three days of Halloween this year. Although, I only managed to get one person to go out last night, and even he bailed on me tonight, so, another Halloween alone at a club with a hundred of my closest strangers. Ah well.

So last night I went to a club. A couple, actually. We didn't know where to go, since the club we planned to go to seemed to be closed. Eventually we ended up going to the Velvet Underground, which is usually packed so close you can hardly move, but for some reason it was empty last night. Still lots of hot girls, though; the Velvet is always good for that.

But anyway, let me tell you a little story. I’ll be brief about it:

Girl dressed as She-Ra asks socially inept buy dressed like a zombie if he wants to dance.
Socially inept zombie boy thinks about it, realizing that he’ll feel like an idiot the whole time he’s dancing.
She-Ra looks at him uncomfortably.
Socially inept zombie boy decides “What the hell” and takes a chance.
She-Ra says “All right” and heads to the dance floor.
Socially inept zombie boy follows.
She-Ra walks toward her friends.
Socially inept zombie boy gets very confused.
She-Ra joins her circle of friends.
Socially inept zombie boy tries to save face by also joining the circle.
After attempting to “feel the groove” for a while, socially inept zombie boy notices that She-Ra’s friends are looking at him like he’s a freak.
Socially inept zombie boy assumes that it’s a rather apt assumption, since he is, in fact, in a goth club.
After enduring the uninviting looks for a while, socially inept zombie boy looks at She-Ra with an incredibly confused look on his face.
She-Ra shrugs.
Socially inept zombie boy walks away, confused as ever.

Makes me wonder why I bother. It’s been suggested that I should throw my own Halloween party next year, since I’ll have my own place, but let’s face it: it will turn into everybody making out with their respective significant others, and I probably still won’t have one.

As for the clubs, well, I still haven’t learned my lesson. Time to go to the Dance Cave and feel awkward for a few hours.

-Rick-

I fought the war, but the war won’t stop for the love of God.

So, last Tuesday. Let me tell you about last Tuesday.

It started out great. I was up at 6 in the morning, and if you know me you’ll know that’s a big deal. So I showered, shaved, had breakfast, then made some calls about apartments. Within the first three calls I had two appointments and one call-back (none of the other calls panned out, and neither did the call-back, but that was okay).

I left for work, and that’s when things went down hill.

I got to the subway, took out my PDA to finish last week’s post, and my PDA appeared to be broken. It displayed just fine, the buttons worked, the batteries were fresh, it just didn’t respond to the stylus.

Great.

I got to work, but I was the first one there, and about twenty minutes early. I don’t have a key, so I sat down and read my book for forty minutes.

Once I got in the office, I took out a screwdriver and completely dismantled my PDA in an attempt to fix it. But there was nothing obviously wrong with it. No loose wires, no cracks, nothing.

So I put it back together. I figured I’d try downgrading to the Palm IIIe motherboard I have at home. But the bigger issue is that I had two appointments to see apartments that day, and the addresses were on my PDA.

Okay, so I call home, wake my mom up (because she’s working nights at the post office now) and get her to tell me the addresses. Luckily I wrote them on a piece of paper before transferring them to my PDA. I apologize to her and let her get back to sleep.

At 3 I take a lunch break to see the apartment. It’s 10 a minute walk from the office, so that works out well. The apartment is in a two-floor Victorian building, and for apartments in my price range (this one was $850 for one bedroom) it was beautiful.

On the outside, anyway.

I went to the building I was told to, rang the number I was told to, and waited. And rang. And waited. And rang a lot.

Then a woman walked up to the door and let herself in. I explained to her that I was there to see an apartment and she told me I need to see someone in the next door over, apartment 2. So I thank her very kindly and go next door where there is no apartment 2.

Now of course, I don’t have the phone number for this place, and I’m on my lunch break, so I run around downtown trying to find a newspaper so I can call him. Two major intersections later I find a convenience store and pay him 75 cents for the newspaper, look up the number in the classifieds, and call him from the payphone outside. (Incidentally, at this point someone recognized my Woodbine Home Hardware shirt and asked if I worked there.) So I call the guy and explain that I was waiting outside and he forgot about the appointment, but he tells me to back to see it. Of course, before heading back I confirm that I have the right building and apartment number.

So I head back and ring the bell and wait. And I ring the bell. And I wait.

Okay, I’m getting impatient here. I look for a closer payphone and spot one across the street at another (closer) corner store. I walk up to the phone and realize that there’s no receiver. So I turn the corner and find another phone. I put a dollar in, dial the number, and the guy can’t hear me. And it eats my dollar. So I go into the store and explain what happened and the cashier says “What? Oh, that’s not my phone. Go next door.” So I go next door, and of course, it’s closed. So I go back to the store, get her to break a five, find another phone, call, and now he won’t pick up the phone. I lose one quarter to the answering machine and give my next quarter to a beggar. (I’ve already lost $2.25, what’s one more quarter?)

I give up, go back to work, call the guy again (he tells me he didn’t hear the buzzer) and book another appointment for Thursday.

So far, it’s had a happy ending. That night, as mysteriously as my PDA stopped working, it mysteriously started working. I saw the apartment on Thursday, called to take it on Friday, filled out an application yesterday, and I find out if I get it tomorrow. Then I’ll move in December 1st.

And this apartment is great. It’s a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a two-storey Victorian building, big windows in the front (living room) and back (bedroom), 12' ceilings, less than 10 minutes to walk to work (right smack dab in the middle of downtown) and only $795 + hydro.

I couldn’t be happier.

-Rick-

I seem to have lost my verb tense.

Update: I just got a call from the landlord. The apartment is mine. MINE!

I didn’t have anything to write last week, so I didn’t. This week isn’t much different — my life just hasn’t been very interesting lately. It’s comfortable, but it makes for uninteresting reading.

So I guess this is the sort of situation where I just talk about my thoughts on a certain subject. I’ve had one subject in mind for a while, but never quite got my thoughts together. I guess we’ll see how I do.

There’s a lot of things I don’t understand. I accept most of these things: I don’t imagine I’ll ever understand how something came from nothing to birth the Universe. I imagine part of my problem in that regard is that I think in terms of something and nothing. But that’s okay. I’ll never understand it, but I accept that.

I have a harder time accepting all the things I don’t understand about human behaviour. I mean, I’m a human, right? This stuff shouldn’t be beyond my grasp.

For instance: dress codes. I have no trouble understanding uniforms, just the dress codes restaurants and clubs impose. Clubs are the worst — I always feel insulted by them. That shouldn’t surprise me, I suppose; when some preppy kid handing out fliers looks down at your pants and shoes (or, in my case, boots) and proclaims “You’re not getting in dressed like that”, it’s tough not to take it personally. Fancy restaurants are different in this regard in that they provide you with a jacket if that’s their dress code.

So, I’m insulted by the insinuation that I’m inferior because I wear inferior clothes. Well, why don’t I just start wearing preppy clothes? I have dress shirts, slacks, dress shoes; even ties and a jacket, if that’s required.

The question I have is what makes these clothes supposedly superior? It can’t be price. I’m wearing boots that cost $150 and my lovely full-length leather trench coat which cost $1200. A $100 hoodie is not unheard of. And they’re made well — certainly better than the clothes you can buy at Zellers which do pass dress codes.

I don’t even know the rules for women. They have a lot more leeway to express themselves (a good thing) but I have absolutely no idea how they figure out what’s appropriate to wear.

I think that’s all I’ve got for today. I might tell you next time about how crappy my trip to see an apartment yesterday afternoon went (and you’ll find out why it took so long for me to write this post, which I started two days ago).

-Rick-

Don’t call it a comeback; I’ve been here for years.

Okay, okay, I know. I didn’t post last week. Apparently this time that warranted a phone call from Vancouver. Well, as is usually the case, I wrote the post last week but never got around to posting it, so you’re getting another double whammy today.

Well, I’ve been talking a lot lately about Greg Costikyan and his Death to the Game Industry articles. Well there’s been an exciting development because it turns out he’s not just talk. He’s actually quit his job to start an “indie label”, of sorts, for games. It’s called Manifesto Games and I really hope it takes off.

In other news, I’ve looked at a couple apartments over the last two weeks, but only last weekend did it occur to me how much I suck at looking at apartments (which I mostly learned by talking to my mom). I looked for bugs. I had that much down. What I didn’t do could fill volumes. I didn’t try opening the windows. I didn’t try running the taps. I didn’t ask if there was laundry facilities in the building. I don’t even remember if there was a stove.

Okay, so I guess I won’t take the apartment. I’ll wait until I actually look at an apartment when I look at an apartment.

Oh, one other thing for those of you who tried to run Counter Balance on Windows XP: the crash is fixed. Apparently the font was corrupt but not corrupt enough to confuse Windows 2000.

-Rick-

What’s in a sig?

Ugh, tired from staying up too late last night playing video games. I mean, uhh... Tired from staying up too late last night partying hard, and, uhh, saving the whales. I’m still single ladies! (PS, Uru is really hard.)

Anyway, I promised to talk about books today, but I really just wanted to talk about one.

I’ve finished The Eyes of the Dragon and started in on The Stand. Eyes of the Dragon was a good book, even if it was intended for a younger audience. It would be great for someone in, say, grade 7 or 8 to read (that is to say, a kid who is mature enough to read a little bit about sex), but that’s not the book I want to talk about.

That leaves The Stand. I’m not very far yet, I’m only on page 71. Page 71 of 1141 — that’s the part that gets me. 1141 pages. That intimidates me. It’s fair to say that this is the longest book I’ll have ever read, as long you don’t count my copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is actually five books. I’m going to feel a huge sense of accomplishment when this is done. Maybe I’ll even try to finish The Silmarillian (haha, yeah right; sorry Christopher Tolkien, it’s just not that good).

Well, I guess magazines count as books; does that still count if it’s distributed solely in electronic form? Well, I didn’t talk about it too much last week other than telling you to read Part I and II of Greg Costikyan’s article Death to the Game Industry: Long Live Games (did you do your homework?) but I’m very impressed by The Escapist and if you have any interest in gaming culture and you’re the type that thinks games are art then you’re doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t started reading it. After you’re done with Greg’s articles be sure to read The Mainstream is Coming, the Mainstream is Coming! by Tycho Brahe (yes, the astronomer) and the Classical Studies issue. Pick one article and write a 500 word summary. I expect it on my desk by Monday.

Now for those of you more interested in my personal life than my reading material, you’ll be happy to hear that I’ve been given more responsibility at work. First, Christmas came early. They’ve purchased me a new video card and a bigger hard drive and upgraded my copy of Win2K to WinXP (I’m talking about my office machine, of course). The video card and hard drive are important because I’ll probably be in charge of taking screen shots and video captures. The new version of Windows is important because Microsoft is no longer letting developers compile against the newest releases of DirectX under Win2K.

Also, as of today, I’ll be working on an in-game editor for Hegemony to let us (and the players) place down troops to create scenarios. Once that’s done I’ll probably start making some modifications to our map editor to let us control the more scripted parts of the game.

I’m excited.

-Rick-

I guess all this money, well, it isn’t enough ’cause that girl’s got expensive taste.

I’ll warn you ahead of time, this post is about video games and books. If you can’t handle that then I’m going to have to ask you to stand outside of the “Geeks Only” zone.

Well, the big news this week (in video games, anyway) is the controller of the Nintendo Revolution. If you haven’t heard about it yet you can read about it in many places. Let me tell you what I thought when I read this news:

Wow.

Then I let it sink in long enough to think:

That’s... wow.

I don’t know if it’ll take off, but it’s a pretty ballsy move on Nintendo’s part, and I’m glad they’re trying to innovate, although I’m sure a defining factor in this decision was that they simply couldn’t compete in Sony and Microsoft’s Battle of the Chequebook. I really hope this works out for Nintendo — I’ve already heard more than a few angry responses from gamers, like this news is a personal insult to their way of life. Then again, Nintendogs has been doing well. Nintendogs. In the words on Tycho Brahe, “a game whose actual, real objective is to make a puppy love you.” Nintendo seems to be challenging the gamers’ way of life left, right, and centre. Now I can only hope the rumour about Nintendo opening the system up to indie developers is true.

On a lighter note, I passed a couple of games last week. The first was Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Let me set this clear: it’s just the first game with a new story and some new power-ups. That’s fine — I enjoyed the first one and I enjoyed this one — but it’s not as innovative as the first one. I think of it more ac an expansion pack.

For something a little more innovative, lets go a little more indie. Telltale Games recently released an adventure game based on the comic book Bone. To be more accurate I should call it an episode, and that’s the exciting thing about this game. I won’t lie to you — it’s not the best adventure game ever. It’s very good, although a bit too easy for my taste, and regardless of not being the best adventure game ever, I think my co-worker Philippe put it best when he said “They don’t make these games anymore, and it reminded me of the time when video games were this secret thing that only I knew about.” The fact that we’re seeing these games re-emerge makes me happy, and helps me deal with the loss of Cyan. (Although that didn’t stop me from buying Uru: Complete Chronicles today. Hopefully Rand Miller is still getting royalties.)

But let’s go back to that exciting part — the part about Bone being an episode. If you’ve read Greg Costikyan’s article in The Escapist, Death to the Games Industry (Part I and Part II) you probably have a new found (or revived) sense of animosity toward the major publishers, and if that’s the case you should be happy to hear that Bone is being released entirely as downloadable, episodic content, bypassing the publishers and retailers.

This is an important step in creating an indie aesthetic in games. Darwinia has been doing the same thing, and of course all our games at Longbow Digital Arts have been downloadable for quite some time (although we ship custom CDs to those who want them).

Oh, and you know what else I like about downloadable games? I don’t have to put the stupid CD in the computer when the whole game is installed on the hard drive. (I’m looking at you UbiSoft!) Speaking of which, does anyone have a nocd crack for Uru: Complete Chronicles?

Well, I’ve talked too long, and I didn’t get around to talking about books like I promised. Maybe next week.

-Rick-

Minds are soft and hearts are callused.

I didn’t get around to posting last week’s post, but I still wanted to post this week, so today you’re getting — as the title says — two for the price of, uhh... two.

So last Saturday my friend Ashley (whom you may remember from my previous posts) took me tree climbing. I payed $100 for it. Now you may be thinking ‘You gave her a hundred bucks for the privilege of climbing a tree; you sir are a fool’. I also understand that many of you have a bridge you think I’d be interested in (and I’d like to hear more about these fabulous one-time offers!).

But what you don’t know is that tree climbing was wicked cool.

So I met up with Ashley at Don Mills subway station at 9:45 (I was almost 15 minutes late — of course — but other people were almost half an hour late, so it’s cool) and once everyone showed up we piled into a couple cars. Then we proceeded to drive through Barrie and Collingwood.

That was eventful.

Or at least, as eventful as Barrie and Collingwood can be.

Which, truth be told, isn’t eventful at all.

That means I just told you a bold-faced lie three sentences ago, and I have no remorse.

So eventually we get to a place called Scenic Caves (after the people in charge of getting us there got lost a few times), enter a nice log cabin, sign a bunch of ‘We’re totally not responsible for your lives’ wavers, suit up in our harnesses and helmets, and we’re ready to go.

So we walk down to this suspension bridge they’ve hung over the forest canopy where they claimed to have “the best view in the world... of Collingwood” (and, despite laughing, it was a pretty damn good view — even if it was only Collingwood). The next thing we did was hike down a hill into the forest until we arrived at a tractor where we took a ride through the forest, oohing and aahing at the pretty trees (lots of birch!) and the rock formations which, we were told, was due to the fact that the forest was part of the Niagara escarpment. (Okay, nobody really oohed and aahed. Not out loud at least.)

Then we got to the feature attraction: the tree climb. Let me explain this to you. They hung a series of aircraft cable on the trees. They didn’t do anything that would harm the trees, like using bolts — the cables were just held on by tension. From these cables they hung a series of cords, and in these loops of cord they hung 1x6 planks. I’m amazed that nobody has ever fallen off of this thing (we kept throwing around the joke “You can be the first one! Let us know if the harnesses work.”).

The whole thing was pretty awesome. The highest point, if I recall, was 60 feet.

Once we get through sixteen trees we end up at a platform with a 300 foot zip line down which, you can imagine, was much fun. There was supposed to be a 1000 foot zip line this year, but apparently it was, ah, “misengineered”. (Oh hey, we can’t stop on this thing. Oops!)

You’d think that was the end of the trip, but you’d be wrong. We jumped back on the tractor and headed out to explore some caves and caverns while one of our guides, Katie, told us stories about the natives who used to live there (both of our guides, by the way, were ultra cool — thank you Katie & Ryan).

The best cave they had was called “Fat Man’s Misery”, and for good reason. The narrowest part was barely wider than my head, and several people had to back out.

So, since Ashley loves her camera, I’m taking this opportunity to update my campic. This should give you an idea of what the tree-top bridges were like.

-Rick-

I’m just consistently inconsistent.

Got back from camping at the Elora Gorge yesterday. ’Twas much fun. Would have been more fun if my friends hadn’t bailed on me (you know who you are).

I guess I have more to complain about (got sun burned, the fishing sucked, I puked at the swimming hole, our car window got smashed by something that looks very much like vandalism; although I have a hard time believing that) than I have to be happy about (got to go tubing down the rapids, got to jump off a 20 foot cliff into the swimming hole, got to relax) but don’t let that mislead you. Relaxing was the most important part, and it trumps everything else. Just getting the chance to read my book while surrounded by beautiful scenery, to cast a few fishing lines (even if all I caught were rocks), to sit back and roast some marshmallows on the fire, or to sit back and stare at the stars — any of those made the trip worth it.

Now I’m headed to work. Our deadline for the IGF is tonight at 3am. Headed straight back into the fire and I would be surprised to get this posted before Wednesday.

-Rick-

I have to move out. I’m really starting to hate living under a roof of perpetual renovation. I woke up today, showered, shaved, and all that, then just before I left the house I found my boots covered in a fine dusting of drywall compound. Okay, cleaning these is going to make me late for work, but I put in so much overtime that nobody can complain. So I grab a tea towel, wet it, and start wiping down my boots. I wipe the drywall compound out of my boots. Then you know what I do? I wipe the drywall compound off of my cat. Too bad it’s unlikely that the cat will be coming with me when I move.

On another note, I’ve finished Hearts in Atlantis last Friday and finished Myst IV: Revelations on Saturday. Then I finished the Myst V: End of Ages Demo. So now I need a new book and a new game. I’ll probably pick up Eyes of the Dragon today (no, I’m not done with Stephen King yet; give me another 5 months) and I might pick up a GameCube soon. I didn’t play many video games during college so now I have a bit of catch-up to play.

As far as Myst IV goes, it was certainly better than Myst III. For those of you who’ve never heard this story, I passed Myst III the night I bought it — then I returned it and said my computer couldn’t run it (a feat for something that even runs on Macs!)

Myst IV has a built-in hint system, and I think UbiSoft felt better about making more difficult puzzles when it’still possible for everyone to pass it. It still isn’t the level of difficulty I’d expect from a Myst game written by Cyan, but it’s close.

There’s a couple of neat features in this one, like the field of view effect they added. It’s very subtle, but it has a nice effect of slightly blurring the things you aren’t looking at (assuming you always look at your cursor — there’s no eye-tracking hardware required for this game). You also have the ability to tap things with your cursor and it adds a nice feeling of tactility.

However, their cursor feels laggy. It’s a neat 3D hand that responds to the environment, but half a second to respond is enough to make it feel unnatural. I know it would look jagged, but when I click my mouse I expect my cursor to push the on-screen button immediately, not to begin pushing the button.

I also have a problem with a couple of the puzzles. Basically, you have to replicate a sound — I’ll give that much away —. Solving the puzzle is pretty easy. Executing the puzzle is a whole different matter. You need to get your timing down to the half second. That was incredibly difficult for me, and it’s not why I play Myst games. I play Myst games to exercise my brain, and a little bit for the story and graphics — not to do anything remotely twitchy.

Probably the best thing about Myst IV is the story and how much you interact with characters. It’s a nice thing to have for someone who enjoys the series enough to, say, read the novels, or learn D’ni. Not that I know anyone like that, of course...

The video-capture actors, by the way, are gone in the upcoming Myst V: End of Ages. I understand why they did it — this chapter is completely real-time, and that would make video-capture look very awkward. I forgive them because of it, and because the 3D engine is so damned beautiful. However, when listening to the one guy you see in the demo — on both occasions — they force you to watch from a pre-defined spot. It makes me wonder why they didn’t go with video-capture.

But I don’t care. It looks like a great game, and it’s a bona fide Cyan Myst game.

-Rick-

Oh yeah, upcoming closed compatibility test for Hegemony: Philip of Macedon. Shh! Don’t tell anyone!

[Ed - I know, I missed last weeks’s post. Things were very busy. However, I did write a post last Tuesday — I just never got around to posting it. So without further adieu, here’s last week’s post.]

I know, I know. Posting a day late. But it’s not my fault! I sat down on the subway yesterday to write my post and my PDA was out of batteries! Okay, maybe that is my fault. Maybe I should have checked my batteries before leaving, or finished the post on my computer when I got home instead of playing Myst. Well, too bad for you!

Oh yeah, I did finish Doom 3 last weekend (which was wonderful) and bought Myst IV, but maybe I’ll talk about that next week. Today I’m talking about Ashley’s scavenger hunt, because she finished it. Of course, most of you don’t know about Ashley’s scavenger hunt, so this is a wonderful opportunity to write about it!

I’ve mentioned Jon before, and how he moved to Vancouver. Well, before he moved to Vancouver he was dating a sweet girl named Ashley (AKA Sweet Smiles, in case you’re the FBI and you need to know her alias). Well, they haven’t broken up or anything despite the fact that Jon’s moved to Vancouver (and Ashley’s moving back to Montreal for her final year of University). Far from it.

Actually, when Jon left, he gave Ashley a red envelope. Inside the envelope was a card with an ampersand on it, another card with two slits and the words “Proboscidea” (I think) and “Rook”, and a third card which asked what Bill and Ted, Dr. Who, and Superman have in common. An interesting way to say goodbye, no?

Well, the card with the ampersand fit in the slits between the words “Proboscidea” and “Rook”. “Proboscidea” means “Elephant” and “Rook” means “Castle”. The Elephant & Castle, a restaurant where the two of them had “a moment” (I’m saying that like Holden in Chasing Amy; incidentally, that Elephant & Castle is where the IGDA has their Toronto Chapter meets each month). In case you haven’t figured it out, (it took me a few minutes) the commonality between Bill and Ted, Dr. Who and Superman is telephone booths. So when she looked behind the telephone booth in front of the Elephant & Castle she found another red envelope.

This continued on. One of the clues led to me (Jon left me the envelope), one led to her closet (I delivered that one too, and her mother was sort of disconcerted when a stranger came to her door and said “This is going to sound weird, but I need to put this box in your closet.” Inside the box was some gifts, a spade gardening shovel, and another red envelope with a clue that (once solved) told her to dig in Tramov’s front garden. One clue was inside a bar which had closed down for renovations since Jon put the clue there, and she had to call the place to get in.

Well, last Sunday she called me up and said she would be in the area and asked if I wanted to get ice cream with her (I’d told her about St. Clair’s Ice Cream Factory near my house, and their soft-ball sized scoops, but she’d never been). Then she confided in me that she was on her way to Jon’s house for clue 13 (which I knew was the last one).

So after getting ice cream, we walked to Jon’s place, and she tried to read me the whole time to find out what was at the end of the hunt (she was 90% sure that was the last). Well, we got to Jon’s house, talked to Barry, his dad, and then Ashley went to get the last envelope. Inside was enough cash, down to the penny, for her to visit him.

I’d say “You can imagine how ecstatic she was”, but unless you’ve met Ashley, you really can’t. She was likely more ecstatic than you could possibly imagine.

Oh, before I go, apparently The Star went to the last IGDA meeting (which I missed; we chose to stay late at the office) to write an article about how tough the industry is with all the overtime and whatnot. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, since it’s six in the morning and I’m riding the Blue Line home. I guess that sums that up.

-Rick-

Hearts are Tough. Most times they don’t break. Most times they only bend.

Well, it’s official. I’m addicted to killing zombies. I was tempted to read up on zombie killing techniques instead of writing a post for you. I hope you understand. It’s not that I don’t like you anymore, I just have my priorities, and I’m sorry to break it to you, but ridding this city of the undead scourge takes precedence.

For those of you following my job at LDA (can I call it a career yet? That sounds so weird) you’ll undoubtedly recognize a variant of this conversation:

“So where do you work now?”
“I work at an independent video game company called Longbow Digital Arts” I proudly reply.
“Oh? That’s cool. What games have they done that I would recognize?”
Amused, I say “Well, they’re independent, so unless you’re into the scene, probably not many.” Then I give the indy rocker attitude a rest and explain some of the games they’ve done.
Then that dreaded question comes up: “So what do you do there?”

It’s at that point when my enthusiasm usually drops and I try to explain to them that I’m currently only writing their new online store, but that they include me in design decisions and there’s this license they’ll have me work on if they get it, but I can’t talk about it since I’m under NDA.

Well, I’ll be getting a refreshing break from the store. It’s only the launcher/configuration/upgrade app, so it’s basically tools programming (I still won’t be working on any game logic or anything like that) but it’s a start. It’ll make me feel like a real programmer >:)

In other news, I managed to secure myself a ticket to the Nine Inch Nails show. I dropped $74 on the ticket, but I’m still happy. I won’t be able to find anyone to go with me, and even if I could they ran out out of double seats in only a few hours (this is at the Air Canada Centre, by the way), but that’s okay. I can be a loner. It suits me well!

Oh, one last thing. I usually don’t like to get to serious on here, but, well, I feel I have to. Most of you know about Vicksen, and the two of us try to keep things civil, but only a few of you know about the skeleton in our closet. Well, it turns out that she has a blog now and she decided to bring it up. If I’ve never told you about Skorpwhy then you might as well read about it from her. I really don’t want to talk about it right now. It hurts too much.

-Rick-

I wrote most of this post three days ago. Shh — don’t tell anyone!

No, I’m not posting a day late. Yesterday was a holiday. It was Simcoe Day. I’m not sure what Simcoe did to deserve his own day, but I’m sure it was important (and I’m not complaining!).

Yes, I’m telling you that I took a day off from blogging. Is that a problem?

Anyway, I’m really tired today. I suppose that’s what I get for staying up into the small (and increasingly growing) hours of the night when I need to work the next day. Unfortunately for you (or maybe fortunately?) that means I’m keeping this short.

After all, I need to get my beauty sleep. I have a double/blind date tomorrow (and no, that doesn’t mean I’m dating two blind chicks). Don’t ask me about her. I know nothing beyond her name and hair colour. (And even then, I would probably spell her name wrong if I tried.)

Before I go, I’ll leave you with some games that should keep you busy for a while. First, you’ll need to be bad-ass enough to keep this jerk from stealing your cursor. Next, these cute mice need your help in getting to their chu-chu rockets and escaping the tyranny of, uhh, the tyrannical space cats. I’m still trying to get Grace to leave Trip for me, but she seems to be immune to my wily advances. Finally, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been ready my whole life to destroy the unruly zombies of, uhh, unruliness (+5). I’ve never really gotten into these HTML MMORPG things, but I’ve just started this one today, so we’ll see if it sticks. (My user name is Skorpion, in case you’re wondering. I know. Surprise.)

Speaking of zombies, everybody in Vancouver should go on the zombie walk. Everybody. (Apparently this is usually held in Toronto. How did I miss out on this?)

-Rick-

Yes Jon, it was stolen. No Bryan, it’s not done. Yes ladies, I am available.

Well, I haven’t finished Doom 3 yet, since I only played one night last week (I spent the weekend working on updates to Firefang — stay tuned!), but I’ve got the rocket launcher, so that’s one stop from the mighty BFG, right?

Anyway, some people (okay, one person, a Mr. Shin Ali Roffle, which is turkish for “Haha, I’m a Turk”) complained about all the monsters in closets, but obviously Mr. Roffle doesn’t read unnature magazines. Just check out this excerpt from Unnature Para-monthly:

“When it’s not unleashing a maelstrom of fireballs on its unwitting target (which we now understand to be a mating ritual) the Imp makes its unnatural habitat in closets, ventilation shafts, and — in a pinch — under beds. Similar to the mighty Flesh Reaper, it collects torsos and bits of gib with which it lovingly uses to craft its nest where it will lay its unholy spawn.”

They sound so cute, I was thinking of buying one from the local pet store, but then I remembered that I don’t have a closet, and I only have one torso.

So let me tell you about something which I just witnessed on the subway. I was sitting there writing a blog post about the nesting and mating habits of hell spawn, and there’s this black dude sitting across from me looking all thoughtful and a little depressed (I only mention that he was black because I think it had something to do with why he was looking so thoughtful).

After a while, he turned to an Oriental girl across from him and said only “Excuse me.” (I only mention that she was Oriental because, well, you’ll see.)

She turned to him and he paused for some thirty (uncomfortable) seconds, obviously in deep thought.

Then he continued. “It doesn’t matter what somebody looks like, right?”

She didn’t immediately respond, and merely sat with her hands over the purse that lay on her lap, wearing an expression of bewilderment.

Before she did respond, he asked “Do you speak English?”, to which she politely shook her head.

Upon seeing this signal he turned to the white girl beside me (I only mention that she was white for consistency) and asked the same question: “It doesn’t matter what somebody looks like, right?” At this point I think he realized his priorities, because he asked the other question, “Do you speak English?”

She did.

He went on about some things he obviously needed to get off his chest, mentioning that everybody has a face (although I’m not sure that’s strictly true) and that he has a face (and I’m sure the people without faces don’t appreciate that kind of boasting).

Anyway, the most amusing part of the story is when we transferred to the Eastbound train. I reached the platform before most of the other passengers (I get a little uncomfortable in crowds, so I try to stay ahead of them) and found a comfortable place to wait. That’s when I see the Oriental girl walk past me with her purse in one hand and a copy of Harry Potter in the other.

Now, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Harry Potter isn’t exactly a traditional Chinese book.

Anyway, I should probably get back to working on the site, lest Bryan fire me.

-Rick-

Have you ever noticed how much Harry Potter looks like John Lennon?

It’s that day of the week again! Of course, I’m talking about the day of the week where Jon moves to Vancouver, because apparently he didn’t really go last time. Actually, he went for real on Saturday, and should be arriving today.

But I’m not saying goodbye again. I already did that two weeks ago. Jerk.

Okay, so I know I’m a little late on the gravy boat, but I finally got a new video card and a copy of Doom 3, and my god, that game is great. I boot it up, turn off the lights, put on my headphones, and scream like a little girl. There’s something about carving through demons with a chainsaw that makes a game good. I think it’s because it reminds me of Thanksgiving.

On the topic of Doom, you might like this piece of Doom fan fiction. It depicts graphic sex and violence (consider that an NSFW warning, I guess), and, given that, you really could never imagine it being any good, but it is. It’s really the only good piece of Doom fan fiction — scratch that — it’s the only good piece of any fan fiction I’ve ever read. (By the way, before you Internet ninjas beat me for posting an old meme, I know it’s old. As I’m writing this I’m hoping the link still works.)

As an interesting aside (an aside from what I’m not certain) I have another friend moving from Vancouver tomorrow. Apparently he’s got a final interview with Pseudo, which amuses me slightly. You can ask me why if you’d like to know. (Just so you know, it has nothing to do with the company itself, of whom I would personally grant the status of k-rad.)

That’s all I got. Now leave my loneliness unbroken and quit the bust above my door.

-Rick-

Nevermore.

Sorry for posting a day late. I am writing this on Monday, but I’m going to a foam party tonight (last night) and I don’t imagine bath foam and electronics get along very well, so I’m leaving my PDA at the office tonight (last night).

Anyway, now that I’m taking it semi-seriously, I’m finding this whole blogging thing kind of odd. That is to say, I always found blogging odd, but not in the same way.

It reminds me of this girlfriend I had, actually. See, I used to keep a private journal, and I updated it pretty often, but it wasn’t really a private journal because my girlfriend, at the time, read every single entry I made. Now, that annoyed me, but I didn’t say anything because I was spineless. If I said something then she would get all uppity and ask why I want to keep secrets from her and I wouldn’t have a good answer and then I’d get the cold shoulder for a week. Or maybe she’d understand. I don’t know, because I never said anything.

The point is, everything I wrote became filtered for her. Similarly, everything I’m writing now is filtered for the masses (all three of you). I know this shouldn’t be a big revelation — I write all sorts of things that are intended for public consumption. I think it’s the fact that blogging lends itself so well to being a whiny bitch. The fact of the matter is that if you think I’m being a whiny bitch here, you haven’t even scratched the surface of my whiny-bitch-ability.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got right now. It’s today now, which is to say that it’s Tuesday. That means I travelled into the future, and that makes me awesomer than you.

By the way, the foam party was pretty rad. Then again, what wouldn’t be better with bath foam?

-Rick-

Oh, I’se the b’y that builds the source
And I’se the b’y that links it.
I’se the b’y that catches the bugs
And drinks another cola.

First, I have to mention that my friend Jon is moving to Vancouver in a matter of hours. We’ll miss you, dude. I know some people in Vancouver, so try to stay away from them. They’re a bit frightening.

The next thing I have to do is wish a happy birthday to Vicksen (PS: My friends totally think you’re hot; they also blame you for me being a camwhore, which is mostly true).

So, what to talk about today? I had a good topic in mind a couple nights ago, but I didn’t write it down. I suppose that’s what I get.

Anyway, it occurs to me that many of you may not know about my new job. Most of you should, since I sent out an email to about twenty of you and posted it at The Cult, but I still find myself telling people about it. The chances of those people reading this site (blog) are pretty slim, but I’ll explain it anyway.

The place I’m working at is Longbow Digital Arts, an independent game company. You may have noticed their sticker on the side of the page. For the most part they’ve been making smallish arcade games, but they have been around. The grand prize at the Independent Game Festival is named after Seumas McNally, the old president and lead programmer at LDA who died after a three year battle with cancer, after they took the grand prize at the IGF for his game Tread Marks (which I like to refer to as a “let’s drive tanks and shoot stuff” game).

Anyway, they’ve been working on a new game for the last year, and it’s their most ambitious game yet. It’s a Real Time Strategy game called Hegemony: Philip of Macedon and it’s about Philip, father of Alexander the Great, and his rise to power. The engine so far is rather impressive. This is the sort of job where I might stay at work until quarter past 10 (like tonight) on my own will because I enjoy working there.

Don’t get the wrong impression — I’m not writing any games at the moment. (Although I am prepared to!) If you clicked on the Tread Marks link above (and you’re reading this the night I wrote it) you’ll find it broken. [Ed - Huh, turns out that link isn’t broken. I guess this is the only time I can count on that!] That’s because that’s the location it will be at tomorrow, when I launch the new site. That’s right, I’m doing web work. After this, I’m writing a new online store for them. Some of you know how bored I’ve been getting with web work lately, but it doesn’t matter. They could have hired me to fill their staplers and I would be enjoying myself, if only because they include me in the design decisions.

And it’s an exciting job! The day I got there, Rob said “Oh, hi, I’m just setting up your computer.” He paused, then added “So, we found out we’re in the Indy Showcase. It’s tomorrow. Do you think you can get something online for us?” to which I replied “I’ll try!” Then we went to the showcase and everyone oohed and aahed and I got to pretend like I actually helped make the game!

So what do I like most about this job? Is it the fact that it’s my first full-time job, or that it’s the most money I’ve ever made? That it’s a wicked cool office that overlooks the Eaton Centre? That I can now afford my own apartment?

Nah, it’s the stocked mini-fridge. I’m in heaven!

-Rick-

Oh hell, now I remember what I was going to talk about.

Well, I might as well get started on this entry early. I finished The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah last night, so I have nothing to read on the subway today. I could buy the final book today, but everybody is telling me what books I “have to read” before I read that one: Everything’s Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, The Eyes of the Dragon; and I’d still like to read The Stand some time. That’s all one author! Don’t even get me started on The Hobbit, the Dirk Gently books, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and maybe even some more ‘classical’ books... I used to have a list of books I wanted to read (or other people wanted me to read) somewhere, back in the pre-Rick-has-a-PDA era.

It’s kind of weird having everyone talking about The Dark Tower. I mean, my mom read The Gunslinger to me as a bedtime story when I was a kid. (Okay, so I was a weird kid, and she was a weird mom. She also assures me that I used to beg and plead for her to read ‘It’. Apparently It was my favourite book. Pun intended. Sucka.) By the way, I stopped by the book store after work today and I’ve pretty much made up my mind to read those four Stephen King books before I finish the Dark Tower. It should work well, because I think I can “borrow” all four books from people. (Hey, who put that word in quotes? Oops!)

In spite of this decision, I almost bought the last book today anyway. It’s just so pretty!

Hey, look behind you! It’s a segue!

No wait, I lied.

So, let me tell you about this fish & chips place I ate at earlier this week. It was called ‘London Style Fish & Chips’, and I have to say, I question its authenticity. If it really was London style, I’m pretty disappointed with London’s style. They were the worst fish and chips I’ve ever had.

That’s not why I question its authenticity, though. I question its authenticity because there wasn’t an English person in sight. I’m not talking about “Pip pip, jolly good day for a spot of tea, and all that bloody bollocks” kind of English, either. I’m talking about people who speak the language. It kind of breaks the suspension of disbelief when the cashier yells your order to the cook in Chinese, and you look behind the counter to find that the kitchen’s decor consists of Oriental wall scrolls and illustrations of blow-fish.

Anyway, that’s all for today. I think I’ll also cancel our meeting on Monday, unless I’m feeling really generous. Don’t count on it, though. I have it on good word that I’m a big fat meenie.

-Rick-

I think I used to have a porpoise, but then again, it might have been a dream.

There’s been some clamouring to update my blog, most recently lead by Vicksen (yes, that Vicksen). She’s also not accepting that whole “It’s not really a blog” thing that I’ve been fostering with that “Blog” style you most likely see to your left.

Originally I didn’t want this site to be a blog because I intended it to help get me a job. I wanted it to at least be semi-professional, so I had things like a ‘Downloads’ page and intended to post some articles and such. But it was inevitable that I ended up treating it like a blog (even down to the detail where I never update); I knew that from the beginning.

Not that I have anything against blogs. Okay, so I don’t read them myself, I have no shortage of places to write (including a paper journal), and I don’t exactly feel like I’m giving back to the Internet with this rambling (why anybody would clamour for it is beyond me). But aside from all that, I really don’t have anything against them.

My biggest problem with accepting this as a blog is that I already made that ‘It’s not really a blog’ style sheet. Sure, the joke died a long time ago, but if I accept this as a blog, I’ll have to change it to say something like “Okay, geez, it’s a blog.”

So fine, it’s a blog. I’m a blogger. Happy? I guess that means I should update every once in a while. That might not be a problem, though. Presuming I have something to talk about, I can just do what I’m doing this very moment and write an entry on my PDA while I commute to and from work. So what do you say? Meet me here next Monday and we’ll see if I can think of something to talk about. And if not, we’ll just skip the chit-chat and go straight to the fun part.

-Rick-

Current Mood: Cheery
Currently Listening to: Right Where It Belongs, by Nine Inch Nails

Well, it’s been a long time since my last post, but [Bryan] has convinced me to update. Well, let’s see what’s happened in my life since the last post... I met a girl I like, My old college hired me to write a game engine, my grandfather died, the girl I was smitten with let me know it could never be, I went to Vancouver (first time ever out of Ontario! It was amazing!), my server died, I repaired my server (and installed FreeBSD this time), and I co-hosted an IRC chat for the IGDA. Did I miss anything?

Oh, right, I missed something very important. I’ve got a new cam pic up!

Okay, back from a club right now. For Devil’s night my costume wasn't done, so I went out as The Crow (derivative, I know, but at least I did it well). No pictures of that, though. Sorry.

For Halloween... Hail to the king, baby. (For the less educated (and I don’t see why they’re not teaching this in public school yet), no, I didn’t just come off a killing rampage, and I’m not the guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm Ash from Evil Dead and Army of Darkness.) I’ve got more pictures here.

I love Halloween.

How does that phrase go again? Oh well. Vicksen promised a slutty cam pic, and she came through.

Also be sure to check out another pic I captured during that “photo shoot”.

Well, we won! And I promised Vicksen my cam space for a month, if she voted for me, and if I won. Here's her first pic; she promised to do something sluttier later.

Okay, the new Counter Balance download is up. It’s a bit more classy than Keyboarder, but it’s by no means a full game. Enjoy it anyway >:)

And the cam page finals are in effect. Call me silly, or maybe just a cam whore, but I want to win this thing, so I updated my cam again. Enjoy!

Uhh, that should be ‘résumé’, not ‘resume’.

So I’m looking at the date of the post below, and the date of this post, and I guess I should be expecting my e-kneecaps to be e-broken soon. I ended up going to the Job Fair instead of writing the Keyboarder page. Then I ended up wandering around downtown, watching a bit of An Evening with Kevin Smith and playing Zombies!!!. (With the Mall Walkers and the Not Dead Yet! expansions, I might add.) This ended with me staying up for some stupid amount of time (I believe it was somewhere in the area of 35 hours) which means I consequently slept most of the day away yesterday.

The upside to all of this is that my résumé is now updated and available in HTML or in PDF for easy printing. (You’ll need to Get Adobe Reader to view the PDF version.) One more step towards that “Contact” page that I hear is so important for getting a job.

Also, I have a new cam pic in liu of the cam portal contest at the Penny Arcade Cult.

Cheers!

Update: the Downloads page is now done. Also, sorry for being so bloggish, Vicksen, it was only this one time, I promise!

Well, I’ve finally gotten all the licensing stuff sorted out with Keyboarder, and you can download it right here. I still need to finish the page for Keyboarder and, for that matter, the Programs page, but hey, give me a break, okay?

Actually, the new pages should be up by tomorrow. You can e-kick my ass if I don’t get it up.

On another note, I’ve decided to stop using CVS for my site. It was just too much of a pain in the ass to get it to work with large binary files, and really was overkill for a site where I’m the only author. My life is happier now that I’m using Unison for my staging.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m exhausted.

I’m continuing to work on the important stuff, and on the top of the list for important stuff was, that’s right, another style for the site. It’s over there in the “Alternate Styles” bar, titled “Blog”. I think you can work out for yourself where I got the inspiration for that style.

By the way, the image in that theme was taken by a friend of mine, and... I uhh... I havn’t exactly asked her permission to use it yet. But I’ll get around to it when she wakes up. Anyway, she’s moving to Alaska, and that’s a picture of Unalaska, Alaska. It’s a great name, I know.

You can find her blog (yes, it’s a real blog this time) right here (and no, I havn’t asked her permission to link that, either).

Edit: This new style will work for those of you using Internet Explorer, but, like Hellcat, it will look better in a standards-compliant browser.

And it’s only been three months! Okay, so maybe I’ve been slacking a bit during the summer, but the page is up. There’s still not a whole lot of content, but the important stuff is here, like an archive of my cam pics, my live cam, and a rant about why you shouldn’t use Internet Explorer.

The less important stuff, like, say, the programs I’ve written, my contact info, or my résumé will be up soon; hopefully sooner than three months.

Okay. So I’m designing this new page. It’s supposed to be professional. But let’s face it; this is going to turn into blog material, so I might as well stop fooling myself with it.

So I’m still in the process of designing the page, but it needs content to be able to test it, and The Raven doesn’t work so well as a news post.