...then one of the family cats started puking less than two feet away from me, and I had to take care of it.
So you don't feel empty... cursored?... here's a couple of links, one about a crazy retro-style comic and another (EDIT: oops, posted the wrong link) about an upcoming movie (the trailer's NSFW, but the concept's so awesome [and described independently of the trailer itself] that I had to link it anyway). And here's a link to a site for RTS games, though it looks a bit oldish and irregularly updated in spots.
-Signing off.
Showing posts with label linkage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linkage. Show all posts
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Axe Cop and Cool Pictures
(For this week's post at the Writing Blog [goodness, been a while since I could type that], I have a brief but serious discussion of how Axe Cop's world is constructed. No, really. Stop laughing.)
I found a couple of great picture blogs today: concept ships and concept robots. (The lack of capitalization is intentional.) Tons of pictures of beautiful futuristic machinery.
Warning-the sites are some of the worst bandwidth/processing power hogs I've ever seen. The site uses embedded flash for headers, footers, and all of the artwork (presumably to discourage art theft, though I'll point out that "stealing" any image on your screen isn't that hard-print screen button, anyone?), and there are typically five to ten flash objects (not counting advertisements). If you have a relatively slow connection or computer, these sites may not be for you; if you're stuck with a 56k connection, your computer will probably explode. Fair warning.
-Signing off.
I found a couple of great picture blogs today: concept ships and concept robots. (The lack of capitalization is intentional.) Tons of pictures of beautiful futuristic machinery.
Warning-the sites are some of the worst bandwidth/processing power hogs I've ever seen. The site uses embedded flash for headers, footers, and all of the artwork (presumably to discourage art theft, though I'll point out that "stealing" any image on your screen isn't that hard-print screen button, anyone?), and there are typically five to ten flash objects (not counting advertisements). If you have a relatively slow connection or computer, these sites may not be for you; if you're stuck with a 56k connection, your computer will probably explode. Fair warning.
-Signing off.
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Punchline is Machismo
Don't have time to put together a real post at the moment (well, I do, it's just that I don't really feel like messing around with Paint right now), so I'll direct you to this rather funny little webcomic called Manly Guys Doing Manly Things.
It's written by a woman, but is surprisingly not satirical (though it is highly parodic and full of video game references-though you don't need to be a huge gamer to understand most of it). It's pretty new, and I read the whole archives by looking over my sister's shoulder for about fifteen minutes.
As my sister commented to me, the expressions are brilliant.
-Signing off.
It's written by a woman, but is surprisingly not satirical (though it is highly parodic and full of video game references-though you don't need to be a huge gamer to understand most of it). It's pretty new, and I read the whole archives by looking over my sister's shoulder for about fifteen minutes.
As my sister commented to me, the expressions are brilliant.
-Signing off.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Everybody Who Sees This Links It
(Sorry, but no new Writing Blog this week. Ran long doing other things. I did update the Writing Resources page with a link which you probably know about if you're interested in the linked site's subject, but if you aren't, you might find it interesting. Emphasis on might-my own interests are really diverse.)
My title might be exaggerating.
According to the guy who did this, the footage was filtered from numerous science fiction movies of the era it's attributed to. Its Star Wars-likeness arises purely by a combination of coincidence and clever editing (and possibly use of some audio from the Star Wars radio drama).
It's brilliant, really.
-Signing off.
My title might be exaggerating.
According to the guy who did this, the footage was filtered from numerous science fiction movies of the era it's attributed to. Its Star Wars-likeness arises purely by a combination of coincidence and clever editing (and possibly use of some audio from the Star Wars radio drama).
It's brilliant, really.
-Signing off.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Commentary on a Good Book and a Link
(Ah, finally! A new post at the Writing Blog! It's short, but it's enough.)
I recently read The Domino Pattern, the latest novel in the Quadrail series, which I mentioned in this post back during the Alien Invasion theme week I did last July.
I'd do a more typical review of the subject, but reviewing something written by Timothy Zahn is hard. (I do so here, but, well, that's different.) This is mostly because it's hard to explain very much about his work (or any mystery-oriented work) without completely ruining it for any future would-be readers.
I will say I had a blast reading it-I finished it pretty quickly (I could easily have had it sent back to the library first thing the next morning, and I got it somewhat late in the afternoon). I will also add that the time estimates I gave in my previous commentary were greatly exaggerated, as the time they spend on a space train at one point is about a month and a half-but the time is still disproportionate, especially when one considers that they're talking about traveling to the opposite side of the galaxy.
Anyway, good stuff (as if I would say anything else about Zahn's work), and I recommend it.
-Signing off.
I recently read The Domino Pattern, the latest novel in the Quadrail series, which I mentioned in this post back during the Alien Invasion theme week I did last July.
I'd do a more typical review of the subject, but reviewing something written by Timothy Zahn is hard. (I do so here, but, well, that's different.) This is mostly because it's hard to explain very much about his work (or any mystery-oriented work) without completely ruining it for any future would-be readers.
I will say I had a blast reading it-I finished it pretty quickly (I could easily have had it sent back to the library first thing the next morning, and I got it somewhat late in the afternoon). I will also add that the time estimates I gave in my previous commentary were greatly exaggerated, as the time they spend on a space train at one point is about a month and a half-but the time is still disproportionate, especially when one considers that they're talking about traveling to the opposite side of the galaxy.
Anyway, good stuff (as if I would say anything else about Zahn's work), and I recommend it.
-Signing off.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Short Book Review and Link
(Here's the Writing Blog post. I talk some about tone.)
As bad as you might think things are where you live, if you live in the United States, chances are you have things pretty good. Heck, if you're reading this, you've got things very good indeed.
Compared, at least, to people who live in the poorer parts of Africa.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is both a sober reminder of this fact and the autobiographical tale of how one young man managed to bring hope and light to his family and community during hard times, despite being forced to drop out of (the frankly already inadequate) school by financial woes, and using his own intelligence to do so.
Using nothing but his trial-and-error learning in electronics and a few science textbooks granted to a local library, William Kamkwamba was able to use junk, scavenged parts, and a few gifts from his friends to build a windmill, a device never before seen in his home country of Malawi, despite famine and hardship.
And he did this by the time he was twenty. (He's only in his early twenties today.)
So, if you want to learn about the harsh parts of Africa in the present, and an uplifting ending, this is a good book.
-Signing off.
As bad as you might think things are where you live, if you live in the United States, chances are you have things pretty good. Heck, if you're reading this, you've got things very good indeed.
Compared, at least, to people who live in the poorer parts of Africa.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is both a sober reminder of this fact and the autobiographical tale of how one young man managed to bring hope and light to his family and community during hard times, despite being forced to drop out of (the frankly already inadequate) school by financial woes, and using his own intelligence to do so.
Using nothing but his trial-and-error learning in electronics and a few science textbooks granted to a local library, William Kamkwamba was able to use junk, scavenged parts, and a few gifts from his friends to build a windmill, a device never before seen in his home country of Malawi, despite famine and hardship.
And he did this by the time he was twenty. (He's only in his early twenties today.)
So, if you want to learn about the harsh parts of Africa in the present, and an uplifting ending, this is a good book.
-Signing off.
Friday, April 9, 2010
A Link And Some Small Musings
(Here's my post over at the Writing Blog.)
I've spent some time over the last few years observing and learning about the game Magic: The Gathering, mainly because I like understanding the minutiae of how its game mechanics work.
Something about its flavor, though, has always bugged me somewhat.
The players play lands, summon creatures, and play spells. Supposedly, they're magic-users called planewalkers or planeswalkers. While this isn't so problematic, the fact that players can summon "legendary" cards that represent historical figures starts to make it kind of weird.
Then there's the fact that it takes all the magical power of an entire "land"-a mountain, a plain, an island, a forest, or a swamp-to create a single creature or spell.
And these all-powerful planewalkers, who can draw power out of entire lands at a whim, are threatened-can even be harmed-by some itty-bitty little critter like a goblin or a bug?
If one imagines that these are ceremonial battles, it becomes slightly less strange... except that they're still essentially huge-scale wars.
Then there's the fact that the largest creatures in the game are only a small order of magnitude more powerful (in terms of stats) than the smallest-a Phyrexian Colossus, a war machine somewhat larger than a typical school building, is only "eight times bigger" than some lowly bug (it should be numerous orders of magnitude larger).
When you get down to it, though, the fact that the players rely on external sources for the energy necessary to use magic combined with taking alternate turns really takes the flavor out of it.
There are other ways to do it. I've seen one (the game Duel Masters, while clearly inspired by M:TG, has a distinct gameplay edge over the older game-never mind that it's from a rather kiddy anime series), and I have an idea for another that would be even more "flavor-correct" than that. (I'm not sharing here-I'm going to share once I've perfected the idea and have a chance to market it. It sounds fun in my head, if for no other reason than because it's just so different from most of what I've heard of on the market.)
In the meantime, well, I still enjoy Magic: The Gathering; I just think its flavor is off.
-Signing off.
I've spent some time over the last few years observing and learning about the game Magic: The Gathering, mainly because I like understanding the minutiae of how its game mechanics work.
Something about its flavor, though, has always bugged me somewhat.
The players play lands, summon creatures, and play spells. Supposedly, they're magic-users called planewalkers or planeswalkers. While this isn't so problematic, the fact that players can summon "legendary" cards that represent historical figures starts to make it kind of weird.
Then there's the fact that it takes all the magical power of an entire "land"-a mountain, a plain, an island, a forest, or a swamp-to create a single creature or spell.
And these all-powerful planewalkers, who can draw power out of entire lands at a whim, are threatened-can even be harmed-by some itty-bitty little critter like a goblin or a bug?
If one imagines that these are ceremonial battles, it becomes slightly less strange... except that they're still essentially huge-scale wars.
Then there's the fact that the largest creatures in the game are only a small order of magnitude more powerful (in terms of stats) than the smallest-a Phyrexian Colossus, a war machine somewhat larger than a typical school building, is only "eight times bigger" than some lowly bug (it should be numerous orders of magnitude larger).
When you get down to it, though, the fact that the players rely on external sources for the energy necessary to use magic combined with taking alternate turns really takes the flavor out of it.
There are other ways to do it. I've seen one (the game Duel Masters, while clearly inspired by M:TG, has a distinct gameplay edge over the older game-never mind that it's from a rather kiddy anime series), and I have an idea for another that would be even more "flavor-correct" than that. (I'm not sharing here-I'm going to share once I've perfected the idea and have a chance to market it. It sounds fun in my head, if for no other reason than because it's just so different from most of what I've heard of on the market.)
In the meantime, well, I still enjoy Magic: The Gathering; I just think its flavor is off.
-Signing off.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Writing Blog Post Plus Pregnant Martial Artist
This week over at my Writing Blog, I've posted a revised version of one of the pieces I did over here that I liked pretty well. I think I've tightened it up a bit, and my conclusion is that the version over there is better.
As for the video embed of the week... Well, it becomes a bit less incredible once you consider that nunchaku are probably the only martial arts weapon that doesn't require much in the way of whole-body flexibility.
But it's still darned impressive to see a pregnant woman swinging the darned things around.
It sticks in my mind, anyway.
-Signing off.
As for the video embed of the week... Well, it becomes a bit less incredible once you consider that nunchaku are probably the only martial arts weapon that doesn't require much in the way of whole-body flexibility.
But it's still darned impressive to see a pregnant woman swinging the darned things around.
It sticks in my mind, anyway.
-Signing off.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Mecha and Lego Lightsabers
This week at my writing blog, I'm examining (combat) mecha in fiction. Particularly, I'm examining the roles that writers put them into.
And for the video, here's a slightly grim little video that's made with Legos and stop motion, which centers on a pretty cool lightsaber fight.
Kind of nasty, especially at the end there, but still pretty entertaining.
-Signing off.
And for the video, here's a slightly grim little video that's made with Legos and stop motion, which centers on a pretty cool lightsaber fight.
Kind of nasty, especially at the end there, but still pretty entertaining.
-Signing off.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Random Links: Things That Amused Me
I'm going to have trouble with calling these posts things that aren't exactly the same.
Japanese transforming robot phone toys. Dang those goofy things look happy.
How can you make a video that dull to go with this song? Seriously, it's really spottily matched up. The only reason it isn't totally nonsensical is because whoever made the video is trying to induce a seizure with rapid scene cuts. Gaack and whoever it is recycles a lot.
Does movie director Michael Bay have Rammstein songs stuck in his head? It might explain a few things.
True Transformer scales according to the fans. But how tall is Devastator supposed to be?
Freaking scary not-really-birds. Big ones.
Okay, another Transformers/Rammstein music video. A certain amount of irony that the song is "Amerika" but the video's clips are set in Qatar.
The astronaut of tomorrow? I've probably heard of this guy before, but I just thought I'd throw this in here.
Japanese transforming robot phone toys. Dang those goofy things look happy.
How can you make a video that dull to go with this song? Seriously, it's really spottily matched up. The only reason it isn't totally nonsensical is because whoever made the video is trying to induce a seizure with rapid scene cuts. Gaack and whoever it is recycles a lot.
Does movie director Michael Bay have Rammstein songs stuck in his head? It might explain a few things.
True Transformer scales according to the fans. But how tall is Devastator supposed to be?
Freaking scary not-really-birds. Big ones.
Okay, another Transformers/Rammstein music video. A certain amount of irony that the song is "Amerika" but the video's clips are set in Qatar.
The astronaut of tomorrow? I've probably heard of this guy before, but I just thought I'd throw this in here.
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