So, continuing my ideas for a game console. Today, I want to get out the ideas I had for hardware. Hardware is actually the hardest bit, if I ever want to implement these ideas. Mainly because I don’t want to force someone to get a specific CPU, a specific graphics card, a specific motherboard.

(Side note: One reason I’m letting my mind get distracted by this is because I’m at a point where I can’t really focus on the novel. I have to write the things in my head, not come up with new ones.)

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I have a few guidelines in life. One of them is if I don’t like something, I should have an alternative. Otherwise, I’m just doing unproductive whining. I complained about Sony (PS3) and Microsoft (Xbox 360) and how they were handling the hacking community. Therefore, I have to come up with an alternative of what I would do (if I could).

(Some of this is notes and ideas since I don’t know if anyone who reads this blog is interesting in game consoles and open-source as much as me.)

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Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)
College Petitions #3
DG Edit (3 of 34 chapters)

Got a chance to see my website with the new Firefox 3.5 Beta. I got curious since 3.5 is supposedly the first Firefox that will be able to handle web fonts, a way of putting a custom font on a website without fancy tricks. Previously, I used sIFR, but I don’t like hack solutions for changing fonts, no matter how elegant or impressive. The site looks so much better, using Underwood Champion as a font. It looks like Courier, but has a lot more character to the text and gives the entire thing a nice feel.

So, in anticipation of it coming out, and my desire to get rid of sIFR, I decided to clean up the site a bit. I switched the banner to the right and integrated the web fonts a lot more. It goes with that “important” need to have a right banner than a left; it doesn’t really manner which side but I kind of like it on the right at the moment.

Sadly, the Windows version of Firefox 3.5 isn’t as pretty as the Linux version. The Linux renders Underwood Champion beautifully but I can’t get my Windows machine to render that font without it looking like someone write it out on a moving truck. No doubt, it is settings on my computer, but I’m still holding my breath.

Still, it feels good to play around with web design and avoid what I should be doing, like working on my petitions or editing DG. I got into the third chapter of DG when my laptop started acting up last night. For some reason, I couldn’t check in any changes, but I could if I copied them manually over to my desktop. I got around it, but it took me a little bit. Things seem to be working correctly now, so I’m anxious to get started.

I also got distracted with a little short story. Just an idea I want to get out of my head. So, I’m working on that while trying not to think about my inability to eat solid food for the third day in the row.

Weight Loss (4.1 of 14.7 kg)
College Petitions (2 of 4)
DG Edit (0.5 of 33 chapters)

Having trouble sleeping tonight. Part of it comes from the drugs flowing through my veins. Drugs for pain and ones to prevent infections. The aftereffects of surgery were not too bad; Fluffy said was I all cute and groggy when I finished up. I managed to sleep better part of fifteen hours today, which also contributes to the lack of sleeping and me making a blog post at two in the morning.

The rest of this is just a list, probably not interesting for most people.

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Weight Loss (2.6 of 14.7 kg)
College Petitions (1 of 5)
Commission (589 of 10k words)

Doesn’t quite sound as good as “tradition”, one of my favorite songs, but I had a very productive weekend so far. One of the main things is that I finally cut over the new theme to Moonfire Games. The theme is growing on me, though I don’t have the extra flair stuff, I do have all but one thing up and running. I still need to migrate the online Map of Creation but that is going to take a bit more than a few hours to get that running. Apparently, it broke badly in the last year and no one told me until recently.

I’m also changing my formula for petitions. I haven’t sent out any, but if I count the answered questions and the ones I’m looking for supporting documentation, I’m much further than 20% done. So, I just came up with one point for answering the question, one point for evidence, and one point to submit to come up with the new formula. Sadly, at nearly 70%, I really, really need to get off my ass and finish them. I’m going to send one out tomorrow, at least that is the plan.

Mowed the lawn… sort of. It’s a free lawn mower, so you can’t expect much. If I keep up with it, I’ll be able to do it on two charges, but right now it should take me a few more days to finish up. The charge on the mower only lasts about a half hour with the tall grass and an hour and some with the short grass. Obviously, it will inspire me to actually keep up with the lawn work.

Gave up on getting subtitles to work with the movies. Just too hard at this point, but I do have a nice copy of While You Were Sleeping for Fluffy sitting on the MythTV box. I’ll rip a few more movies, like Princess Bride and Juno.

Except for a walk, which I haven’t done in three days due to being sick, I’m pretty much just going to blow the rest of the day on Fluffy, writing, and maybe programming.

Today is the happiest day of the last week. Not only is it Valentine’s Day (which I don’t really celebrate but it gives me an excuse to get Fluffy stuff), but I also found out World of Goo is out for Linux!

*squee*

Yeah, it is silly for most people, but I love Linux. It fits my personality, and while it isn’t the easiest thing to work with, it just happens to be, well, me. It also is “a path least traveled” which is one of my general guides in life. Along with “may you live in interesting times”.

Not only are they supporting Windows and Wii (apparently from the download center, though I haven’t had a Wii to check it out), they also support Macintosh. Which is something most game companies don’t really do. And, I have to utterly respect that and the complete lack of DRM, knowing that it won’t make that much of a difference.

I also love World of Goo. It’s a great little casual game. And not only do I enjoy playing it, but I also look up to 2D Boy because they succeeded. They did my dream, to go from nothing and blow through all expectations to be brilliant. I have the same dream. Not only for writing but programming.

I don’t see people who succeed at what I really want as a terrible thing. Anyone who can succeed has my best wishes. Interestingly, I don’t really get jealousy either, one of those foreign emotions for me. So, for all those programmers who write the perfect game or all the writers who find themselves staring at their book in the bookstore, I can only feel joy for them.

And maybe a little bit of hope that I’ll be doing the same some day.

Now, time to run off and play obsessively.

Ended up working late last night on a customer issue. Fortunately, I’m not inclined to ignore the phone in the last three minutes of my work day in the off chance I’ll spend an hour and a half trying to fix things. However, it is highly annoying when I can’t figure out the problem. I’m suppose to be this impressive programmer, damn it.

After a quick trip to the grocery store for healthy food, I brought home the results of my unhealthy (Subway club sandwhich) lunch because I forgot to do groceries the day before. It isn’t that Subway isn’t bad, it is the pawn shop next to it that isn’t (financially) healthy. 3010 DVD’s for $30. “I got me some BAD movies!” including Ultraviolet, an absolutely terrible movie with some neat colors I like.

Since I didn’t get home late, I didn’t try to write. Instead, I just did little things. Like figure out how to get my VPN working from Linux, including a remote desktop to my work machine. Now, I don’t have to use Windows again except for World of Goo and Crayon Physics Deluxe. And the second those turn Linux-friendly, I’ll be ecstatic.

Then I spent an hour moving Glorious Saber to its new home. Not pretty right now, but it uses ComicPress in a shared environment (update one place, update them all) which means it has all those features I spent a week writing before. And, sadly, probably more secure, faster, and better developed.

Going through the strips, I still enjoy read it and looking at how my own graphical style is getting slightly mature. And getting depressed that its been over a year. And almost two years since my Exalted in-character journal has been updated. I always worry about the abstract nature of the Glorious Saber. I get complaints about the lack of arms and legs, but I like it. I also like Absurd comic and the Oblongs probably for the same reason. Though, both of those go with limited mobility where I go with not rendering arms and legs.

And, in the constant need to go to sleep on time, I managed to take almost three hours to get to bed. Apparently, in the middle of my shower, I decided I really wanted to get text-to-speech working on my computer.

Why?

What is wrong with me?

So, my computer can do some pretty talking. And I sort of added the programs to do some musical backgrounds. And was reminded that I really, really want an IPA dictionary to correct some of that really bad speaking. And that I liked Running Bomb but it needed help. And a tone of other things.

Guess what, apparently I’m exhausted.

Go figure.

Apparently, one way of getting over writer’s block is to decide not to write and work on something else. The sheer desire not to do what I’m “suppose” to do is enough to make me want to do anything else. In this case, writing. After deciding to work on the baby squid god for the weekend, I managed to find the energy and desire to write just over five thousand words in a few short hours, finish the first draft a commission, get feedback, and update it. Nice feeling, even if one of the feedback items was “too romantic”. Oh well, easy to fix tomorrow and I’ll send it right back out with a couple hundred more words worth of expansion.

Went to Fluffy’s family reunion. Rather nice, talked a lot, relaxed a bit, enjoyed some good food. Found out I have a uncle-in-law three blocks from my apartment who is into realty. Well, guess I knows who is going to probably help us find a place. Also ended up have a long talk with Fluffy about the future of our home, mainly how to juggle so many parts around in the next few months. Painful, but I think we needed to talk.

Finally, worked on the baby squid god. After three days of work, I came to a realization. I hope too much for things to go well. While I could make it perfect, it is going to take another week. And, if it takes me two weeks to do the squid, what about the eleven levels (seven plus inter-stage areas) and 10-20 opponents (i.e. victims to drive insane). I could do it, but not in a month. So, this morning after sitting up about it, I decided to switch to 2D. I have a better chance of getting it done and I really want to succeed. Not to mention, I might get some help with graphics from TIG Source since they love the pixels.

I know, you are all excited about another game project. Bet you want me to write or something. Well, I still have a short story coming up and I really need to work on Scroll of the Lands this week. But, not tonight, Fluffy is leaving for Illinois tomorrow and I’d like a few more short hours with her.

I like this idea. I like the idea of someone trying to basically start up another prize to help humanity. I also think that we need a hell of a lot more windmills, solar panel farms, and alternative energies. I also want someone to replace the engine of my car with one of those electric motors with the gas-powered generator for backup. The problem is… I can’t find any of that. I know the science behind most of those, I used to steal the Healthy Living book from my school library for weeks at a time, dreaming of a world where I could live with the least amount of impact on stuff. It was the same type of dreams when I would look through the Bass Fishing catalog up at the cabin most of my childhood. That catalog, ten years old, was probably more heavily read than my dad’s stash of Penthouse. And I’m including the time between 5 and 17 on that.

When I read about hybrid engines the first time, I knew what I wanted. I even looked it up and saw the whys of my decision and what needed to be done. I stared lustfully at hybrids and wailed that the technology I thought was best suited for me (plug-in electric with diesel generator) never happened. Every time I’d find out about a new hybrid, I’d check it out and was just disappointed by the complete and utter lack of progress.

And that was years ago.

When I bought a new car earlier this year, I looked at the hybrids. They sucked for anything besides a modest improvement on mileage. Seat heaters (a Fluffy-required feature), nope. Fit my size, not really. It was like the only hybrid we could find was 10% more for 30% less features and options that we have gotten used to.

And I keep waiting for someone to come up with my dream car.

And someone keeps not doing it.

I know, I could figure it out. I’d have to teach myself engineering, frames, and engines. Well, my brother probably could do the frame for me, but I’d have to pay him. I know that I have the intelligence to replace my engine with what I want, to make it work. Yeah, it would be expensive, but I know I can. The problem is, I didn’t go that route in life. Its one of those closing doors of my chosen path. I’m already a pretty good programmer and writer. But, to add mechanical to that when I’m already trying to be an artist and a musician (at least game music), is just pushing it. I ended up specializing in my life, but there are things that I wish I could do. I could get my dreams of the perfect car, but I would have to give up writing for a while. I can’t do both.

So, $300M for a car battery is the only thing I can hope for. I want someone to come up with a perfect car for me. It isn’t really the money part of things, but obviously I don’t have $300M to come up with it on my own. To do that, I would have to get venture capital and do it via a business, which means I would have to teach myself that business also. Instead, I have to wait for “market forces” to align with what I want. Or at least do the right thing when they had a chance, instead of scrambling because we got sloppy with our greed (I’m including myself).

Either that or do it myself.

But, first two short breaks.

Have you ever thought about how hard it is to do a selfless act without telling anyone, since the very act of telling someone makes it a selfish one?

And, the word of the day today is defenstrate which is my absolutely favorite word in the English language. My second favorite is “moist”.

So, passwords. In this last week, one of the major things that got tested was my passwords. I know it doesn’t sound very impressive, but remarkably, this was probably the most stressful thing I encountered since I had to abandon my apartment for a week, sans laptop.

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Ah, the two pleasures of life for me: writing and programming. I’ve been writing a short series lately. Just 2-3k words per day, but I’m enjoying it. Not entirely polished and pretty though. I’m trying to work on my writing craft, trying to make my words a bit more interesting to read about. I’m posting it on a random forum where it is on-topic, Like usual, I don’t get a lot of comments on it. So, my goal is to write so people want to comment on it. That and I have this idea that I’m not a good writer. Mainly because people don’t really get excited about most of my work. There are the few pieces that will get 20-30 comments, but most of them average about 0.1 comment, which is not a good trend. And I want to succeed as a writer, it is something I love to do.

On the other side, I’m working on CuteGod still. Mostly with getting things organized and maybe documenting my sprite library. I rushed CuteGod out the first time and it shows. I need to polish up some of the core libraries, like the GUI processing. I also pulled PlanetCute library out from the Sprite3 library and put it into CuteGod. No reason to make that generic when I’m moving away from it.

Yep, I decided that PlanetCute is nice, but there should be a different style, one that is easier to select things. So I think I’m going to create an isometric version of the game and let you pick between the PlanetCute and isometric depending on your preferences. Bit more work, but I think it will create a more entertaining game.

I also realized that the music I picked up from the always excellent Toucan Music, while free isn’t the right “free” for Debian. So, I need to find different music and sound effects for the game. If I can’t find a musican who wants to work for the right type of free, I’m going to have to make music that is the right type of free. Free is such a complicated word, you know. There is Creative Commons by-sa license (byline and share-alike), which is the most common CC license you can find for music, but only CC sa/3.0 is apparently considered “free” in Debian’s eyes. On Toucan, all the files are licenses CC by-sa/2.5. So, free isn’t free enough for Debian.

Why Debian? Because I use it and I want to see my game packaged and shared to others. And, if Debian accept it, chances are, the threshold for being put into other distributions is also lowered.

Not many interesting things happening right now. Mostly doing these 10-12 hour days for the last week and a half, crashing when I get home. Started changing my ordering from fast food when I’m in a hurry though, that’s good. Instead of a double-quarter pounder meal, I’m getting a fry and salad. Just a few less calories, but you have to start small. Or at least that is what I’m telling myself.

Last night, I got a box of HERO Games books, mostly bestiary and Metamorphs. I saw they had a “damaged” version for sale, so I ordered it. I figured that it would be torn or have a hole in it. But, as long as I could use it for my game, I would be fine.

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