When It Rains It Snows

Actually, it tornadoes! It was a big week for the following reasons: (1) Had to finish 3 projects, one linear algebra exam, and one standard homework. Most computer scientists can tell you how much work a project is worth, and two of the projects were codin. (2) I'm probably moving! It is not working out with the roommate. I'll move to a studio apartment within 5 miles of school in an area called Kirkland, hereby referred to James T Kirkland. (3) I got a cold! (4) I'm on antibiotics! My roommate has a staph infection and has spent time in the emergency room, so I am trying to avoid it. (5) I'm a criminal! Missouri has summoned me home for a speeding ticket I paid for once already in April. But, they refunded the money and sent it to a higher court, because it was technically in a workzone. So, I'm going to try to settle all that from up here, not only to save travel moneys but also it'd be bad if I got pulled out of school for a week. (6) My mp3 player died! The new one given by my pa is not immune to laundry cycles. I have already replaced it, so no worries.

But, if you know me, you know I don't let a bunch of noise like that get me down. One of my projects was to make my first 3D model (The background with the beach, sun, and people is a real picture, so don't freak out). My graphics teacher likes the military, so we made a hummer. Yes, I know it's beautiful, you don't need to tell me.







Oh yeah, earlier this week in the halls of Digi I walked by Chris Taylor, the well-known mind behind Total Annihilation and Dungeon Siege, two games I'm not that into but I do recognize his feats. Also, I have some goods friends that think he's cool, so I get to be all braggy.

I don't know if I talked about what it's like to have one foot in the industry yet, and I guess I'll do that now, because Mykl made me laugh this morning. If you don't care, feel free to skip, because it this is long. The game industry is full of people that all know each other, and also celebrities that only exist in the game community. Before, the industry just seemed like a far off-place full of people I'd never meet, and these people made my games. Kind of like the people that make movies or TV. But now, professors talk about these people like old chums, and even the professors have done some important things. I have one professor that is a big name for doing technical stuff for the Xbox, and one that was a producer/designer for Lucasarts and worked on such games as Monkey Island and maybe Maniac Mansion. One didn't make games, but he says that 3ds max uses his algorithm for binary compounding (trust me, it's neat). One thing that I did not forsee for some reason is that some of my peers have already worked in the industry. I talked to someone who recently finished working on Halo 3 (We got to see it early, as I may of mentioned). I talked to someone from Valve, and also Artificial Studios. There's several people who work at Microsoft as they're taking classes too. So, it is weird to meet faces behind games, or just programs that I've used. For example, imagine meeting a person who was on the development team for cheeseburgers, which has developed itself into an icon in your brain and you assumed must have appeared from nothing.

Also, the Nintendo store rawks, I went there the other week. There's all sorts of swag I've never seen anywhere else, and Nintendo games are there we've seen up to 2 weeks early, and we get everything cheaper. I'm not sure what regular people have to do to go to it, but see what you can do.

Upon A Stage of Possible Giants

The Masters Party was an excellent mingle party. I met several folk, found out more about this wonderful industry, and played some games. Several people there have already been working in the industry, and we played games they worked on on respective consoles. One of the residents of the house works at Bungie, so for much of the night people played Halo 3, which was not yet released. After a few drinks, I found myself arguing the quality of the show Firefly and, more importantly, discussing Team Fortress 2 with an employee of Valve. It's pretty cool meeting faces behind games, I must say.

Anyway, one thing I don't think I've mentioned before is the variety of people in Seattle. I don't only mean a variety of cultures, which does indeed exist, but also a variety in level of sanity (This probably exists in most big cities). The Ozarks seems to have very few people with mental problems that don't allow them to funtion in the world, or maybe they don't leave their house in the Ozarks. If you visit Downtown Seattle, you will be certain to encounter at least one person who talks gibberish to themselves and laughs manically, seemingly unaware of any other person, and also jumping around and uses objects on the ground to tell stories that don't make sense.

I found myself waiting for a bus with one such fellow on the way to the TMBG concert. It was strange, because on appearance I would have guessed he was a regular dude. I was nervous at first, but he seemed to be too involved with entertaining himself to be aware of my existence. I've found out that the proper behavior for someone in my place is to exchange glances with nearby sane people and shrug. I learn a little ettiquette every day.

TMBG put on a great show, but I still had an unpleasant time. I've become aware of a secret society of large obnoxious guys who get drunk and go to concerts, ram their way to the middle-front area, and dance and lean on people and make annoying noises that isn't singing. When this happens, everyone around him glares, and then exchange glances with each other and shrug. But angrily. It seems to be this society's goal to ruin the show for other people though. On at least two occasions during the concert, I found one of these fellows in front of me, blocking my view. The first one... was the worst. TMBG shows are pretty mellow, but he tried to start a mosh pit to "She's an Angel", which is a love song of sorts. A girl attacked him for this, no lie. Anyway, I lost track of him for one half of a split freaking second and he was on stage. His unworthy blasphemis legs were wiggling on the holy altar of my idols. The stage is a forbidden holy land and he was a deviant invader of the devilish variety. I half expected the apocolypse. Fortunately, security prevented this and took him away, and probably chucked him into a dimension where inhabitants must suffer eternally without ever again being graced by a note of sound. The band? Didn't skip a freaking beat.

And today, I went to the Nintendo Store, in Nintendo. It's not an open store, just for special folk, and Digipen students must have an escort. I got a nifty jacket, the new Zelda game on the DS (it's not out yet), and some other swag, all for like 20% off retail price. I'm told they never run out of anything either, including Wiis when no other stores had them. I plan to get Brawl early. I am enjoying the perks of my studentitude.


PS. I forgot to mention, the surprise opener for TMBG was Harvey Danger with just a piano/guitar player, which was reminiscent of Ben Folds (In other words, quality). Upon some wizardnet research, I found that the band put their newest album up for free download here as some kind of wizardnet experiment. If you like Ben Folds (and you should), give it a shot!

Another Week, Another Five Thousand Attack Slugs

This week had a couple disappoints. First, it turns out I missed Animal Collective and The New Pornographers last weekend, two of my favorite musical groups. Second, my semester project must be in 3D, and my robot game lacks the required number of dimensions. Sorry robot. But, I have a good week in front of me. Tomorrow there's going to be a party for grad students. Chances are, it will be a bunch of dudes sitting around with beers playing Smash Bros. It may be a dud, but if I've learned anything from UMR, it's mastering the equation Smart People + Booze = Party. If you've known me these past two years, you've probably heard of Goat House, which is a team of selected specialists who, when combined, can work miracles with this equation. Also, I will be seeing TMBG on Wednesday. YES.

I've recently come across Gamer Dad via Penny Arcade, and I'm impressed. He works hard to spread a message of parenting WITH video games, as in, play games with yours kids to teach teamwork and organization, things I'm told are good for kids, like Flinstones vitamins for the soul. This article in particular caught my eye. It also talks about how online games can be used for scattered families to keep in touch. It would work too, if everybody liked the game. You know, even the elderly play World of Warcraft... just a thought...

On my way to important exams or presentations, I get pumped up with some of my "power music". Seriously, everyone should have power music. I don't know if it helps, but it gets rid of nervousness probably. Most of my power music puts me in the mode "this stupid test can't stop me!" or something like that. Anyway, feel free to use some of my favorites. "The Naruto Main Theme", "Decree of the Sichuan General" from Kung Fu Hustle, "Festivo" from Zatoichi (Blind Samurai), "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" from Kill Bill, and "Go Go Cactus Man" from Cowboy Bebop. Strangely, most of them are from soundtracks of the action genre.

Did I mention Seattle is full of slugs?

Rawkbawt

I will probably be posting weekly from now on, somewhere in the Friday/Saturday range. Second week of school = complete. It looks like it's going to be the standard routine of homework, quizzes and exams, only with the focus on the game project every semester. As I guessed, it won't be as bad as they laid it on, at least not until next year. Especially nothing a professional student like me can't handle.


My project this semester is solo. This picture's a small preview (The textbox says "*despair* MRRRRR"). Next semester will be a group project, hopefully that goes ok. I just don't want to end up making a game I don't care much for.

For my Missouri friends, TMBG is playing in St. Louis tonight (Saturday), but I think they started a couple hours ago.

In other news, Nartzor was good this week. Action was ok, but they laid into some of that "character development" that is rare in anime. Team Gai was stuck in a puzzle and it turns out the solution was Rock Lee's mantra. Also, Kaizoku finally popped out a new One Piece after I don't know how many weeks of break. Hopefully it will be regular from now on, because it looks to be an interesting arc.

For anyone who doesn't keep up with Smash Bros news, Ice Climbers were announced this week. In most cases, this wouldn't really be news, but this announcement disproves an early rumor from around a year ago that they were being dropped along with Mr. Game and Watch, which would be a tragedy. This rumor also said there would be Wind Waker Link, Ridley, and Bowser Jr, so that's uncertain now too. We'll see! Game season is almost upon us.

Digidude

First week of classes went well, for everyone that asked. Classes won't be any worse than UMR's as far as time and difficulty goes, but they will be about fun topics, and also I gotta spend a lot of my free time working on my game project, which is going to rawk some sawks. My into game project class is using XNA Game Studio Express, which is the same thing I played with all summer. HEADSTART FOR KELROY. Unfortunately, due to copyright reasons they won't let my brother make music for my game assignments. This is because we sign a thing that Digipen owns the things the students make, although the students can do whatever they want with them. Since Riley isn't a student, this would not work. I am going to ask a couple more people to see if there are any forms he could fill out if he wanted, since he wants to be a famous video game score composer anyway.

Picture in your mind the feeling that Harry Potter had when he heard the words "You're a wizard Harry!" Only, also imagine that he knew about wizards the whole time and had planned on being one. Anyway, this feeling about sums up my week. I've been finding out that I'm ideal to be a game designer, a career I decided long ago was the only one for me, and have been further affirmed. This probably happened at Harry's first week of Hogwart's too. Also, he's a Leo, and was too destined for great things. Lastly, he was called crazy for telling people that brooms can fly. THEY CAN.

The more I hear about publishers, the more I'd like to be independent. Publishers spend the money to have the game the developers made, so they get a lot of control. In this system, I could go to a Publisher as one of their game designers and say "Hey, I have this great idea for a game!" and they'd reply "Don't make this game, though we own your idea now. Also, you need to make this Barbie game we signed for." Blah to that noise.

Bumbershoot '07

Bumbershoot is the annual 3 day festival of concerts and other things that happens in Seattle on labor day weekend. People smoke pot everywhere. I went on Saturday and saw The Shins, The Moth (a storytelling group including Kimya Dawson), and Gogol Bordello. Other groups seen but were pretty blah were Mae, the Gourds, the Crowded House, and the Common Market. There were also films and performances and stuff going on. At any given time, there were probably 6 bands playing, a couple comedians, a movie or two, and something literary, so you have to plan your day. Sadly, I showed up an hour early to see Micheal Ian Black (At the last minute, Stella turned into Ian Black and someone else), but it was already full when I got there. No dice.

I was expecting to give Best in Show to The Shins because they have my favorite songs, but Gogol Bordello your live show blew my mind. You ignited the fuse to the pirate carnival in my heart and reminded me why I became a gypsy so many years ago. If you have a chance to see them, go, get in the pit, and freak out because SURPRISE YOU'RE A GYPSY NOW. It's a high energy gypsy rock band, picture of some performance below. Keep an eye on this group.


The Shins did have a great live show though. It was a feel-good crowd, and they played a lot of my favorite songs, and even threw some Floyd at us.

Mighty Hills Spare no Wheels

Each day involves two 10 mile journies, to and from classes. I start each morning shooting down a hill I've named Monster Mash, after a wizard from Wizard People Dear Readers (Brad Neely's take on Harry Potter). Monster Mash sleeps in late, so he leaves me alone for now. I pedal a very pleasant 8 mile road, which is tame and beautiful and free of traffic negotiation. But guarding the school every day is a hill I call Satan Hill F**k Chute, named for the tattoo the hill gave itself on it's own beating heart. This is an evil hill, a mighty hill. If it were a pokemon, it'd be a legendary. I try to sneak around it to backstab it, but somehow he always knows where I am. Every morning I battle this hill and lose, and go to school. Someday...

Only caring to defeat me once a day, Satan Hill F**k Chute chucks me towards home at the end of the day. But guarding my house, now awake and alert, is Monster Mash. Monster Mash is also a mighty hill, but not a great fighter. I try to ignore him as I go by, but he has great merriment pushing me down and yelling at passerbys that I am a lesser thing. Eventually he gets tired, and I face my last opponent Shonen Bat aka Lil' Slugger. He's a steep parking lot to my apartment complex. I try to get by him without a fight too, but he knocks me down once everyday and runs away laughing. And then, having lost three battles a day, I return home, determined to grow strong enough to defeat these enemies. The large majority of the journey is very pleasant, and the hills are ok as long as I walk some, so I really can't complain.


Digipen orientation happened. This is one of the most interesting community of people I've met. It's a collaboration of nerds, geeks, and artists (there is a huge different between nerds and geeks). Everyone talks about how busy they are at Digipen, but everyone is incredebly thrilled about it. Rarely ever do you see computer scientists so happy. At UMR, while many enjoy what they do, most are an angry, cynical, stressed, and lonely lot who fulfil the minimum of projects so they can get back to Warcraft. From what I understand, Digipen students are not busy fulfilling minimum requirements. To do that would still get an A, and they'd have plenty of free time. They work themselves to the bone putting in the extra hours to perfect their game. Turns out, everyone at this gaming school is very competitive. Who would guess?