Homestuck Notifier - Spades Slick

 If you've been following me on Tumblr, you know that lately I've gotten interested in a webcomic called Homestuck. It's made up to feel like an old school text-based video game, and it incorporates a lot of audio, flash animation, and even a few flash mini-games (making it a sort of multi-media webcomic). I wont bother trying to summarize the plot, as it's a bit complicated, but it's a really intriguing storyline and I'm hooked.

The comic updates regularly, generally on a daily basis, so sometimes fans have to constantly check the site to see if there's a new page. Luckily, one such fan developed a program called the Homestuck Notifier, which checks the Homestuck RSS feed regularly, and when there's a new update, a sound will play and an image will pop up above the computer's taskbar.

The Notifier cycles through a bunch of preset fanart, but the READ ME explained that you could upload your own image or sound to the program's macro folder. Obviously I had to do this, because the preset images didn't include one of Spades Slick, one of my favorite characters.

BBC's Sherlock

I didn't always listen to their advice, but over time I've discovered that my family members have a wonderful taste in fiction. I spent years refusing to read Animal Farm purely because my dad suggested it, only to realize what a great book it was after all, and since then I've been trying to listen to all of their suggestions.

I'm not sure whether to attribute this to my eldest brother or his awesome wife, but some time back they informed me that I needed to watch Sherlock, an interesting sounding series being produced across the pond for BBC. It took me a while to finally watch it, but I'm glad I did; BBC's Sherlock is easily one of the best dramas being produced today.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

According to my Tumblog, which I updated sometime right after starting the book, I spent a little over a month trying to read Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In the book's defense, I have also been working on NaNoWriMo, so I've had my mind on other things, but as I also had most of the month of October to try to read this extremely well known novel, I don't think this escuse really counts. As it turns out, Dracula really is just one of those stories it takes me an unnecessarily long time to wade through.

Zelda's 25th

Look at that - I'm talking about video games again. Oh well.

I mentioned this in my E3 Coverage post, but this year marks Zelda's 25th Anniversary, 25 years since the first Zelda game was released in Japan by Nintendo. This is pretty exciting for me, as The Legend of Zelda is one of my favorite fiction series of all time.

Treadmill Reviews: Steven Moffat's Doctor Who

Unfortunately, today's post is going to be another one of those that only a few of you will care about (At least I'm not talking about video games again). I'm sorry for that, and I'm getting back to regular posting again this week, after a couple weeks of rocky updating.

On Saturday, the final episode of the 6th season of the revived Doctor Who series aired, and since that's such a mouthful I'll refer to the revived series as just plain "Doctor Who" and the original series as "Old Doctor Who" from now on. I didn't actually watch the episode until yesterday, but since this has been the first season I watched entirely as it aired, and since I watched most episodes while walking on the treadmill, I want to do a review.

Tumblr and TV Intros

A couple short things today.

First, I signed up with Tumblr (here's a link to my page there), after much insistence from friends of mine who use the site. Actually, I did this back in July, before I left on my summer vacation. I intended to write an introductory post back then, but I totally forgot about it until just recently.

In all honesty, I still don't really 'get' Tumblr. It's a micro-blogging service, which means it's like a mix of Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger all rolled in one. Most people, it appears, just post funny pictures or gifs that they want to share with friends, which is cute but not enough to make me join up. There are a lot of people who do post short written pieces, however, so it seems like that's what I'll be doing.

Avast! These be Strange Waters!

 Aye, and they'd have to be, too; today's tide bring in one of the best holidays ever: International Talk like a Pirate Day! That's right, landlubbers, ye heard it here. It's the one day a year dedicated to the fierce, rogue, sea-loving pirates, when everyone around the world can affect an accent and dress up for school or work (assuming, of course, you've explained yourself to your captain).

I'm pretty bad at Piratey lingo, so I wont even pretend to try to keep it up for long.

Everything Bad is Good for You

A while back, I wrote a review on a book titled Reality is Broken (by Jane McGonigal). If you didn't read it or don't remember, the book is about video games, and how they can positively impact the people who play them. Jane McGonigal's goal in writing the book was to help dispel the negative image associated with video games and to try to get people to incorporate the positive aspects of gaming into their everyday lives.

While writing that review, I discovered a similar book, called Everything Bad is Good for You (by Steven Johnson), and the idea intrigued me so much, I decided to buy it and read it as well. Johnson's book, which was written a few years ago, is about Pop Culture in general, and how it's actually making people smarter.

Captain America: The Star Spangled Avenger

Friday, as I sat hunched over the laptop watching Twin Peaks (more on that later this week), mom poked her head into my room and stated that she wanted to go see a movie on Saturday. She does this every now and then - it's a healthy reaction to having months off work (she teaches at an elementary school) and spending most of her time at home with few other people around.

We don't watch movies that are rated R, or movies that just look stupid, so our options this summer are severely limited. After a quick brainstorm, we decided to go see Captain America, which I have to admit was bordering on the 'looks stupid' side of my chart (I'm not a fan of superhero stories, really). However, of all the movies out right now it's the one I was most interested in, so Saturday afternoon we drove out to see Captain America.

Research Essay - Pluto

Last fall, for my final in my English class, I was assigned to write a research paper on any topic I chose. I had to have an opinion about what I found out, so I guess it was a double research-persuasive paper, and after going over several possible topics, I finally decided on one that I felt the most passionate about: whether or not Pluto should still be considered a planet.

I'm no scientist, and my opinion on the matter really has no credence, I understand, but I have done a lot of research on the subject, and I was pretty proud of myself for writing this. We turned our papers in on Finals day, and never bothered to pick it up from his office later, so I'm not sure what grade I got, but I passed the class and my professor complimented me more than once on my writing skills. I know a few people were interested in seeing what I wrote, so I decided for today's blog to publish, online, the final copy of my Pluto essay. Citations have been kept intact, and the photos were added just for this blog.

High-Level Art

I've recently come to realize that most of the comics I enjoy are directed towards demographics that I'm not a part of. I'm not quite sure how this happened.

"Wikipedian Protestor" by XKCD

For most of my life, the only comics that I knew existed were the color "Funnies" that were printed with the newspaper on Sundays. Later, I realized that those same comic strips came out every day in the newspaper in a black-and-white format, which meant more humor throughout the week for me. I've never really read the newspaper, but there was a time in my life when I'd come home from school and read the comics page as part of my daily routine (which meant I always missed Saturdays and government holidays).

What's up with...?

...the Diving Bell Spider?
The tiny Diving Bell Spider lives underwater. Seriously. They build bubble-shaped webs that are condensed enough to trap oxygen but malleable enough for them to be able to poke in or out and grab water insects to feed off of. I'm not making this up; here's the Wikipedia article, an article from Discovery News, LiveScience, and the New York Times.

And a picture!

Not only that, but their webs work the same way fish gills do - the oxygen from the surrounding water leeches into the web-bubble while the carbon dioxide leeches out into the water. Over time the spiders have to rise to the surface to restock their air supply, but they're able to live completely in the water.

Discovering that this spider exists was the single-most disturbing news I'd had in a good long while. Spiders are bad enough as it is; their long legs are creepy, and while I don't mind looking at them (preferable in a container), I can't help imagining them crawling over me, sucking my blood dry. Imagining that happen unbeknownst to me while I'm peacefully swimming around at the beach, thinking all is right? I know, logically, that this spider is tiny and would be hiding from me, but I can't help thinking nature has some cruel, evil trick in mind with these things.

...James Tate and the Prom ordeal?

E3 - Nintendo's Presentation

Tuesday, June 7th, Nintendo (corp.)  gave their presentation to those attending E3. Last year their presentation was extremely cool, so when I logged onto the Nintendo website and loaded the video of the presentation, I was expecting great things. I was not disappointed.

The Nintendo Presentation screen

The screen they used for the presentation was interestingly asymmetrical, and they started off with a small orchestra (~20 instruments) playing a medley of music from the Legend of Zelda series while clips from the games played behind them. On February 21st, 1986, the first Legend of Zelda game was released in Japan, and this year Nintendo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of one of their best-selling series. I was pleasantly surprised with Nintendo for starting their presentation off with a huge tribute to Zelda, especially since in February it appeared like they weren't doing anything.

Portal 2: "For Science. You Monster."

In case anyone has ever wondered before, and I hadn't explained enough, the reason I like video games is because I like stories. Novels, movies, comics, TV shows, and video games are just different mediums of story-telling, and each medium has something different to offer to the timeless task. When I explain that Portal, and especially the sequel Portal 2, are amazing games, remember that I say this to anyone who has ever enjoyed a good story before, and not just people who are into games.

'Warning, this test
contains weighted cubes'

Portal (the original) was released as a filler game in a compilation set by Valve Corporation, a video game design company. It was primarily designed to test the portal mechanics, which gives the player the ability to create warp-holes to solve puzzles. What made the game an unexpected success, however, was the creative use of dark humor and the subtle plot thread that tied the basic puzzle-solving game together. An average puzzle-solver might interest people for a while, but the tense atmosphere that Portal takes on makes the whole game important because the player cares about what's going on.

In Portal, you play as Chell, the only human character in the entire game. You wake up in a white, sterile room, with no idea of what's going on, and are told by a female, robotic voice known as GLaDOS that you will be completing a few puzzles for a scientific test. GLaDOS's voice-over throughout the puzzles provides a lot of the humor, and establishes the plot of the game; she reveals more about what's going on as more puzzles are solved, and the player slowly learns that GLaDOS doesn't seem to care about your safety. She lies to you, promises you things and doesn't deliver, and is a bit passive-aggressively unkind. She's also the only character in the game besides yourself.

World War Z

I think it's very appropriate that, while I was reading World War Z by Max Brooks, the Centers for Disease Control released their How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse report. If you have little to no interest in zombies, and are already tuning out because of the topic for today's blog, I highly suggest you keep reading, because World War Z is not your average zombie invasion story.

Fuzzy Beginnings

Under our very noses, for centuries unnoticed by human-kind, a war has been brewing between two horrific groups of people. Of course, I'm referring to the epic battle between Werewolves (Lycanthropes) and Vampires.

Something like this, right?

Most pieces of modern fiction that depict this war ask the audience to chose one side or another, either by present one as the 'heroes' and the other as the antagonist, or by giving a player the option to choose a side (as in games). After much research and deliberation, I decided of the two groups, I much more of a werewolf fan than a vampire fan, for reasons I'll explain below, but first I must address one important question; why is there even a war to begin with?

The Art of Gaming

Posting a Shadow of the Colossus screenshot now, so I'm not tempted to write five paragraphs about it later.

In another bout of pro-video game blogging, I find myself drawn to one of the more obvious feats of skill required to make a good game: the artwork. I'm a big supporter of the idea that the art doesn't make the game great, the story does, but the artwork definitely can have an impact on our opinions and expectations of a game. If we see more, we expect more, and if we see less, we expect less.

What makes video game artwork so exceptional, in my opinion, is the fact that it has to be fluid (like the music). A movie or TV show may have amazing special effects, and look better than any game can, but whoever put those effects together knew exactly what they were animating, how all the scenes would line up, and how it would appear. Video game programmers have to predict the player's possible movements, and animate every possible step your character could make. And any game programmer worth his mettle should be able to make it look good, too.

Screenshot from Capcom's Okami - not an artist's rendition of the game, but an actual moment as the player pauses to take in the scenery.

Fluently Improper

(This post'll be short, as I'm having a Firefly marathon with a friend today and don't have much time to write.)

Like most people who speak more than one language, I sometimes tend to slip between the two. There's a lot of Spanish spoken in the desert where I live, and some people may start a conversation in English and end it in their home tongue. I don't know Spanish, and while I've been taking French long enough to break into it when writing notes to myself, the language I find myself slipping into in common writing and speaking is a fairly new one: Lolspeak.

 

Twenty Twelve

Many of us have just gotten the hang of writing '2011' on our school papers and checks, and in just over a year and a half, a dusty old calendar mapped by an ancient culture neck deep in polytheism and human sacrifice predicts we will all die horrible, tragic, unavoidable deaths.

April Fools!

If you're not on the internet, you probably think April Fools is a lame, or even annoying, pseudo-holiday. There are pranks, teasing, and bad jokes everywhere, and it's all made worse by the fact that all of it is completely expected. Jim's pranks on The Office are funny because they're creative and unexpected, but trying to pull similar stunts on April Fools' Day is unsatisfactory to both those pulling the pranks and those on the receiving end, because everyone suspects it.

In the twenty-first century, however, April Fools' Day is one of the best holidays of the year, for a simple reason: the Internet.

Websites of all sorts have become the playing field for good April Fools jokes. There are a lot of false, humorous news reports that pop up on April 1st, and there are several well known web companies (Such as Google, YouTube, and Hulu) who have been joining in the fun now for years, changing parts of their websites in a pretend effort to expand their horizons. A number of people may become confused, believing all the web sponsored pranks, but for the most part everyone's in on the joke.

Because everyone understands what's going on, April Fools' Day on the internet has become a sort of comic-relief holiday. It's tons of fun, going around to all the popular tech sites or smaller communities you're a member of and trying to find their April Fools' secrets. And it's great to see that such a humorous tradition continues no matter what else may be going on in the world.

I'd love to make a list of my favorite April Fools' Day 'pranks', but instead I'll just link you to the April Fools List from TechCrunch. I suggest you go check it out and join the fun! Happy holiday!