Hey everyone,
Sorry to keep you all moving. I decided to start up a wordpress blog over at particlesinabox.wordpress.com. This one shall (as usual) become a ghost-town in a matter of seconds. Try to follow your way over there if you're interested. I hope to be slightly more mature in my postings, though some may argue my first real post is a step in the wrong direction.
Cheers, and see you on the other side...
-Adam
Monday, 4 August 2008
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Money
How accurate is the comic above? People consistently tell me that money is the root of all evil. For those of you just joining us here on planet Earth, money is an object which represents society's debt to you for a service. You perform a service, and instead of waiting for the person you did the favor for to do a favor for somebody else that has a favor ligned up with someone who has something you need, the person instead gives you money... which enables you to go to somebody else, and (instead of doing them a favor) simply take whatever you need that is worth the favor you did.
It's essentially a quantum of work. In theory it all works fine, and yet somehow the people who have money are relatively evil, and the people who don't are rebels... Shouldn't somebody with lots of money be considered a hero? He does more for the society than someone who has none... and yet, that couldn't be farther from the truth! The rich generally do things which make it harder for society to function on the whole, and they get more money in the process!
How did things turn out this way?
-A
Weekly fun
I've decided to help my brother out with a sprite comic of his. I'll be doing 1 comic a week over at Nuked. I already have one up that takes a character he made (based off of me), and follows his antics. I hope to do something moderately intelligent with this... I just needed a stupid joke to kick off. The 4 panel shtick likely won't stick either. Anyone got any suggestions?
Cheers,
-A
Cheers,
-A
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Movement in the bushes
Perhaps it is a lack of proper judgement, or maybe it's just boredom, but I've decided to go hunting... in the lab. The idea is to sit in the brown rolley chair Asner uses when he comes to visit, and use my yardstick as a pokey thingy, and hunt... Ducks. Yeah, ducks will do. Meet me in the common lounge if you're interested... I was also considering jousting. Jousting can be fun, right?
Cheers,
-A
Cheers,
-A
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Reinventing the wheel
So as many of you have probably heard, Diablo 3 has been officially announced. It could be a number of things: My lack of interest in the Diablo series, my usual devil's advocate kicking in, or perhaps the fact that I'm just a huge hypocrite, but I'm not particularly impressed with Blizzard over this move. Blizzard has (essentially) three franchises to its name: Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. All three franchises share similar mechanics (a top down camera, strategy like gameplay, and a sequel wait harsher than my sex life), similar titles (in some cases) and even the same damn feeling when you play any of them; namely, the feeling like you're playing a board game (due to a particularly large lack of immersion).
Now I'm not against games for the sake of enjoyment... Not all games have to be an artistic experience! For instance, when I sit down to play Dungeons & Dragons, the idea is to have some fun with some close friends... Something that Blizzard does amazingly well. However, I also like my games to be somewhat dynamic. If you're going to force me to do something formulaic, at least make the formula non-obvious. What's I'm saying to game developers is LIE TO ME! Oblivion was a series of painfully repedative tasks, but I loved it because of the presentation. Hiding the formula isn't difficult, hell it's part of nature! Just emulate that!
Anyway, I say this because I recently had a strong desire to play a couple of childhood games with some friends (namely Secret of Mana, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, etc...) but can't because the system that runs the software necessary for me to enjoy myself is out-dated. We live in a time where computing power (and network ability) would make some of the classics from my childhood easy to play with friends. I think the current market is suffering from stagnation. People are given crap in the way of multiplayer games and they take it. I have friends, and I don't have a burning desire to make friends with a 12 year old that curses because I don't have a macro set up to cast 21 spells in precisely the right order, so that I can take down a dragon that drops a piece of armor that maximizes his stats for one particular task. (phew) I just want to sit down with some friends once a week or so, and play through a couple of hours of a multiplayer-friendly RPG.
Anyway, it would seem nobody shares this oppinion. Otherwise it would be done by now.
Cheers,
-A
Now I'm not against games for the sake of enjoyment... Not all games have to be an artistic experience! For instance, when I sit down to play Dungeons & Dragons, the idea is to have some fun with some close friends... Something that Blizzard does amazingly well. However, I also like my games to be somewhat dynamic. If you're going to force me to do something formulaic, at least make the formula non-obvious. What's I'm saying to game developers is LIE TO ME! Oblivion was a series of painfully repedative tasks, but I loved it because of the presentation. Hiding the formula isn't difficult, hell it's part of nature! Just emulate that!
Anyway, I say this because I recently had a strong desire to play a couple of childhood games with some friends (namely Secret of Mana, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, etc...) but can't because the system that runs the software necessary for me to enjoy myself is out-dated. We live in a time where computing power (and network ability) would make some of the classics from my childhood easy to play with friends. I think the current market is suffering from stagnation. People are given crap in the way of multiplayer games and they take it. I have friends, and I don't have a burning desire to make friends with a 12 year old that curses because I don't have a macro set up to cast 21 spells in precisely the right order, so that I can take down a dragon that drops a piece of armor that maximizes his stats for one particular task. (phew) I just want to sit down with some friends once a week or so, and play through a couple of hours of a multiplayer-friendly RPG.
Anyway, it would seem nobody shares this oppinion. Otherwise it would be done by now.
Cheers,
-A
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
The brick wall is in sight
So I found out what classes I'm being told to take next semester as I enter the class portion of my masters degree... Here they are:
Fall
Experimental Methods in Particle Physics (building detectors)
Advanced Quantum Mechanics (complicating an already complicated subject)
Methods in Theoretical Physics (a complete waste of time, taught by a complete waste of space)
Winter
Quantum Field Theory/Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (Taught by waste of space from above)
Classical Electromagnetism (WTF?!?!? WHY?!?!?)
See I needed to take these classes because I had already taken the two other classes they could have offered me: Computational Physics, and Intro to Particle physics. The easy courses. So instead of taking a tactful masters degree, where I'll be able to excel at things I'm good at, I'm being forced to suffer through overly complicated (and math intensive) subjects which will ultimately destroy my marks and kick me RIGHT the fuck out of the degree I'm aiming to get.
I swear to my all knowing ass, that I will destroy the minds of children and adults alike in the unbeknownst chaos that is my very existence if this absolute BULLSHIT class assignment fails me out of graduate studies. FUCK them. Fuck them STUPID!
I'm a bit stressed recently. Things haven't been going so well. Cheers.
-A
Fall
Experimental Methods in Particle Physics (building detectors)
Advanced Quantum Mechanics (complicating an already complicated subject)
Methods in Theoretical Physics (a complete waste of time, taught by a complete waste of space)
Winter
Quantum Field Theory/Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (Taught by waste of space from above)
Classical Electromagnetism (WTF?!?!? WHY?!?!?)
See I needed to take these classes because I had already taken the two other classes they could have offered me: Computational Physics, and Intro to Particle physics. The easy courses. So instead of taking a tactful masters degree, where I'll be able to excel at things I'm good at, I'm being forced to suffer through overly complicated (and math intensive) subjects which will ultimately destroy my marks and kick me RIGHT the fuck out of the degree I'm aiming to get.
I swear to my all knowing ass, that I will destroy the minds of children and adults alike in the unbeknownst chaos that is my very existence if this absolute BULLSHIT class assignment fails me out of graduate studies. FUCK them. Fuck them STUPID!
I'm a bit stressed recently. Things haven't been going so well. Cheers.
-A
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Look mommy, It's a black person!
There has been some controversy recently with a trailer for the new Resident Evil game, RE5. An article on Kotaku sums it up pretty well: link. I would strongly advise you follow that link before continuing, but due to the controversial nature of this blog, the link will likely lead you to controversial material. Consider not following it at work. Anyway, the video link on that site shows the trailer in its entirety, I advise you watch it.
Anyone who's played any of the RE series knows that Chris Redfield was one of the protagonists from the first game who disappeared from Raccoon city in order to fight a corporation responsible for the horrors he observed in the first game, the Umbrella corporation. (Really original as you can see...) Anyway, the Umbrella corporation is large, and has been responsible for an outbreak in zombifying-viruses which have been a source of considerable shit for the RE protagonists. They're evil. So what do the protagonists do? They fight evil (usually).
Resident Evil 4 left the boundaries of the United States and send one of the protagonists to eastern Europe. Naturally there were bad accents and stereotypes all around. But I commend capcom for taking the game outside of the states. It gives scope to what is essentially a very stupid story. RE used to be a zombie thriller, now it's a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theorists aren't exactly genius, but they do have a very interesting thought process... and if we actually lived in a world that these people have imagined, then I would say our lives would be a hell of a lot more interesting... And that's essentially what RE4 introduced to the series. A problem on a global scale.
So let's talk about Africa for a second; primarily, Africa is a very large island which has ties to the origin of civilization on this planet. So it's safe to say that people live there (or at least have in the past). In case you don't know, Africa is filled with black people... Yep. It's the elephant in the room I'm afraid.
Racism is the favoring of a subject based entirely on the grounds of race. People feel that the RE5 trailer is racist because it portrays one white guy mowing through crowds of African people (the black kind, not the idiotic and crime ridden white population. And that wasn't sarcasm for your information). A parent who doesn't like, or know, the Resident Evil series would walk by the add and say something along the lines of "Oh! Disney's making a new movie!" or something like that... But then they'd see it's a game, and flip out. "What's this 5 game? I bet it's made by those heartless heathens who make Grand Theft Auto 4!" And then the mailing starts, and gatherings are held, where whine and cheese are served... (get it? Whine and cheese?) Before you know it, there's another group that wants to take away freedom of speech, and pin it on racism.
Of course anyone who's ever played a RE game before can tell you, they're full of shit. That wasn't about racism, it was about bringing a very bad story with a global scope into a place that isn't natively caucasian. A bold, and admirable move in my oppinion. I mean it! I am very impressed that Capcom is bringing RE to Africa... How many games do you know of that are based out of there? People are upset because the commercial portrays Africans as "savages" and
"helpless imbeciles", but you couldn't have missed the point more if it slapped you in the face. After 4 "real" games where (largely) caucasian innocents are forced to become zombies at the hands of an evil corporation, bringing the game to africa changes only one thing: the population. One of the Zombies from RE 2 was named Ed, and he worked in accounting... but I had to kill him to survive because when he became a zombie, Ed had died.
The game RE5 has raised controversy unintentionally... If you take a trip to Africa and see that the living conditions are shit, you can blame racism... but that would be largely ignorant. I advise you read up on something before you blame it endlessly. Could the trailer be misconstrued? Yes. But only by those who are too lazy to ask, "so what the hell IS Resident Evil anyway?".
Cheers,
-A
Anyone who's played any of the RE series knows that Chris Redfield was one of the protagonists from the first game who disappeared from Raccoon city in order to fight a corporation responsible for the horrors he observed in the first game, the Umbrella corporation. (Really original as you can see...) Anyway, the Umbrella corporation is large, and has been responsible for an outbreak in zombifying-viruses which have been a source of considerable shit for the RE protagonists. They're evil. So what do the protagonists do? They fight evil (usually).
Resident Evil 4 left the boundaries of the United States and send one of the protagonists to eastern Europe. Naturally there were bad accents and stereotypes all around. But I commend capcom for taking the game outside of the states. It gives scope to what is essentially a very stupid story. RE used to be a zombie thriller, now it's a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theorists aren't exactly genius, but they do have a very interesting thought process... and if we actually lived in a world that these people have imagined, then I would say our lives would be a hell of a lot more interesting... And that's essentially what RE4 introduced to the series. A problem on a global scale.
So let's talk about Africa for a second; primarily, Africa is a very large island which has ties to the origin of civilization on this planet. So it's safe to say that people live there (or at least have in the past). In case you don't know, Africa is filled with black people... Yep. It's the elephant in the room I'm afraid.
Racism is the favoring of a subject based entirely on the grounds of race. People feel that the RE5 trailer is racist because it portrays one white guy mowing through crowds of African people (the black kind, not the idiotic and crime ridden white population. And that wasn't sarcasm for your information). A parent who doesn't like, or know, the Resident Evil series would walk by the add and say something along the lines of "Oh! Disney's making a new movie!" or something like that... But then they'd see it's a game, and flip out. "What's this 5 game? I bet it's made by those heartless heathens who make Grand Theft Auto 4!" And then the mailing starts, and gatherings are held, where whine and cheese are served... (get it? Whine and cheese?) Before you know it, there's another group that wants to take away freedom of speech, and pin it on racism.
Of course anyone who's ever played a RE game before can tell you, they're full of shit. That wasn't about racism, it was about bringing a very bad story with a global scope into a place that isn't natively caucasian. A bold, and admirable move in my oppinion. I mean it! I am very impressed that Capcom is bringing RE to Africa... How many games do you know of that are based out of there? People are upset because the commercial portrays Africans as "savages" and
"helpless imbeciles", but you couldn't have missed the point more if it slapped you in the face. After 4 "real" games where (largely) caucasian innocents are forced to become zombies at the hands of an evil corporation, bringing the game to africa changes only one thing: the population. One of the Zombies from RE 2 was named Ed, and he worked in accounting... but I had to kill him to survive because when he became a zombie, Ed had died.
The game RE5 has raised controversy unintentionally... If you take a trip to Africa and see that the living conditions are shit, you can blame racism... but that would be largely ignorant. I advise you read up on something before you blame it endlessly. Could the trailer be misconstrued? Yes. But only by those who are too lazy to ask, "so what the hell IS Resident Evil anyway?".
Cheers,
-A
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