Randy Pausch Scholarships Awarded
You may recognize one of the names (well, two of them if you include Randy).
Congratulations, Diana!
September 5, 2008
August 19, 2008
Climbing out of the Valley?
Let's talk about fake people for a second. Not people who have trouble engaging in meaningful and honest communication with others... we will deal with them later. For now, let's limit the discussion to people whose mamas were motherboards. People whose fingernails are ones and zeroes. People who do not get frequent flyer miles. You know, Computer-Generated people, the Jar-Jars of the world.
What do you make of this?
August 1, 2008
Garfield minus Garfield plus Garfield?
Like much of the game-lovin' internet, I stumbled onto a treasure trove of nonsense a few months ago via this Penny Arcade link. Who would have thought that the exploits of Garfield could actually be used for comedy?
I had my fill of "Lasagna Cat" after one day, but I've occasionally checked back on Garfield Minus Garfield, and today I noticed some pretty unbelievable news.
July 29, 2008
Shakes
I have a slight confession to make... I've thought about earthquakes a LOT since coming out here. By my nature I'm not a particularly neurotic person, so this occasional fixation on disaster has been an anomaly. I don't look at my gas oven and wonder when it will explode, I don't hear the rumble of thunder and step ten feet back from my computer monitor. I understand the Odds, and I've pretty much internalized the fact that focusing on the unlikely event is pointless. But earthquakes are different. In my L.A. life, they have been both inevitable and totally unknown.
June 30, 2008
Hush Site Live (But Not Yet Awake)
Ever since Values At Play, we've been thinking about making a website for Hush. Now that I did the thing (thanks for the push, Peter) and bought jamieantonisse.com, I figured I'd better start by creating a permanent space for the game to live.
Full admission: this is a site only in the most technical sense, the way a deep sea fluke is technically an animal, and Rolling Rock is technically a beer. That's right, I'm calling you out Rolling Rock. I don't even DRINK beer, and I'm calling you out. i will fight you.
But I have to finish this post first.
What else? Ah, yes. It's important to note that this site ain't finished. I wanted to get the link out there asap, but in the future, this page will have some/more information, including full credits for everyone involved in the game, system requirements, links to write-ups and most importantly, links to places where you can learn more about the Rwandan genocide and how you can help assist in current Human Rights efforts. I'll keep you updated here as the page evolves.
And I promise, all future communications between myself and Rolling Rock will take place off-blog. With fists.
June 29, 2008
Chess in The Wire
I'm finally watching "The Wire", after listening to five separate friends rave about it as the "best show ever made". I'm three episodes in, and it's growing on me.
This scene is a little convergence of Interactive Media and Baltimore Hustling. We often talk about the "metaphor" of games, and how many different ways there are to make an abstract system meaningful. I can't thing of a better example than this.
June 27, 2008
Travian
I have a soft spot for slow games. Games that take place over weeks instead of hours. Glacier games, I call them, knowing full well that the phrase will never catch on.
Al Yang and Ed Zobrist turned me on to this gem, a little European MMOG that answers the question: what would happen if you played a game of Warcraft 2 on a geological time scale? Or, if you prefer: what would happen if Civ II WASN'T a compressed experience, a hyperspeed war 'n' progress sim, played out over turns, but was instead... a multiplayer game of civilizations growing slowly alongside each other?
June 24, 2008
Crowd Mentality
So the other night, Sunday night to be exact, I set foot in the Roxy for the first time. It's a nice place, fairly intimate, with black leather couches scattered over half the floor and a great purple curtain concealing the stage. I love stage curtains, they tell me exactly when the waiting is over and the entertainment is beginning.
We were there to see the Oxford Collapse, a band from New York whose music I'd never heard before, but who had the good taste to name their new album after my roommate. The lead singer, who was cultivating a sort of Albert Brooks cum Magnum P.I. look, thrashed his way through a few good songs before stopping for the customary stage talk.
His subject of choice? The Happening. Using his slightly elevated position behind the raised curtain line for evil (an excusable, nervously snarky sort of evil, but evil nonetheless), he pronounced that he had Seen This Movie and that it was Great.
June 10, 2008
May 1, 2008
Sweet senseless victory
Tonight, for the nineteenth time, I decided to double-click the executable file for "Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden". This time, it actually ran.
Nothing else has changed on my computer. Apparently, Chef Boyardee programs his games to hibernate until May.
The first line of the game... White pixelated text on a black screen. "Warning- The game you are about to play is canon."
Second line: "The Year is 2053. B-Ball is dead."
This will be a great adventure. Full report coming soon.