Numbers for Letters

My Shed and the Ugly Side of DIY

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:15:00 +0000

My Shed, The Ugly Side of DIY
Originally uploaded by shiitake

You'll notice that at some point someone realized that the roof was rotting and instead of repairing it they built a new roof ON TOP of the old one.

And they also used the wrong kind of shingles.

I like fixing stuff myself if I can, but there is no excuse for this. You have to know your limits.

I'm currently working with several local contractors to get my house in better condition. Thankfully, they all have good sense of humors.

Beard, week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:48:00 +0000

I've been bearding all week; it kind of sucks.

Some men stop shaving and the beard comes in fairly even - neck to nose. And if they have darker hair the 5 o'clock shadow helps even out the coloring.

My hair is light colored and straight so I never actually get that 5 o'clock shadow. This is nice because it means I can go a few days without shaving.

However, if I actually want a beard I must pass through several beard phases specific to men with lighter colored hair:

freshly shaved
~~5 oclock shadow~~
stubble
homeless or hipster?
amish
?????

Without the darker mustache it's almost impossible to pass through the amish phase into whatever beard glories lie beyond.

Osama bin Laden is Dead and I Don't Feel So Good Myself

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:23:00 +0000

There can be relief found in the knowledge that Osama bin Laden will no longer be able to lead al Qaeda in attacks on America. And it is comforting to know the time, energy and lives spent searching for the past 10 years was not a waste.

Bin Laden's death serves the vague ideas we have about justice and provides a narrative bookend to 9/11 that is satisfying. Many Americans have been afforded no other way of understanding what we have been doing "over there".

So why am I skeptical of the whole thing?

I've been thinking about it all morning. Am I a cynic or a liberal who doesn't understand the sacrifices of others? I certain don't think of myself as that. Maybe I have issues with the collective confidence everyone seems to be feeling.

Undoubtedly Bin Laden was a murderer; however; when Bush declared the attacks on September 11th an act of war Bin Laden became a warrior. This was exactly what his organization wanted. They were no longer political criminals; they were elevated to religious warriors.

This is perfectly exemplified by the way US Armed Forces took the body after he was killed in order to prevent a memorial or shrine. Our hope now will be that he does not become a martyr. Or since his body is missing maybe there will be talk of his second coming - Americans are not the only ones with narratives.

As for al Qaeda, there is most likely another figurehead plotting in the wings, certainly there are other radical Muslims who do not fear death.

But perhaps this fear is America's largest asset. After all, it is what drives us to pour money into the defense and intelligence industries. Personally I pray for diplomacy but count on the military industrial complex. I'm not proud of this as it is of course a symbol of my lack of faith.

Returning to the nation's collective sigh, I personally have not felt these emotions but it's hard to deny the outpouring in the US today. Especially as seen on Facebook and Twitter. Sadly the response is not all that different than last week when that one guy got kicked off of American Idol; tomorrow is a new day and there will be new FB statuses. We can only hope they're not 10 years in the making.

I have to conclude with an apology to the late Lewis Grizzard. My father was a fan so his cleverly titled books were scattered around the house while I was growing up.

Don't Delete Your Facebook Account

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 14:00:00 +0000

If we're honest we all know that Facebook can be a real drag. Privacy concerns. Farmville updates. Phishing scams. Inappropriately mushy PDA. Theses days people will send a Facebook message to you instead of an email! It's enough to make you want to pull the plug.

If you do you're making a huge mistake.

I am not a Facebook super fan. I annoy and am annoyed by just as much of the stuff I listed above. But it does not change the reality that Facebook is currently the largest networking site on the planet. For better and for worse it has become the hub around which most people congregate.

Can you afford to be absent? For some people with infinite resources and no need for networking I could understand. But are you one of those folks? I honestly cannot think of a single person who fits into either of those catagories.

There are no infinite resources. And most of us are just a few pay checks away from needing some sort of networking (social or otherwise). The obvious exception is old people who live their lives outside of modern technology.

Your great grandparents might do this. That sounds kind of rude but I can see how a retiree who is set in their ways might want to avoid Facebook. They probably won't be looking for a job any time soon. Then again, both of my parents love being able to show off photos of their grandkids on Facebook.

Oldboy, finally a great comic book adaptation?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:19:00 +0000

I love everything about movies except taking time to watch them. I know this is problematic as movies reflect our culture. I'm interested in cultural conversations so I'm trying to address this problem.

I am working a new shift at work that leaved me with two days at home during the week. I've decided that I am going to try to watch a new movie every weeek. I have a lot of them on my Netflix instant queue so even if I don't feel like watching one it can be on in the background while I'm playing Maple Story.

Seven Samurai is on Hulu Plus but I didn't want to bring the PS3 into the living room and the subtitles make it difficult to focus on something else while watching it. I decided to go ahead and finally watch Oldboy. I'd heard great reviews of Oldboy when it was released in the states around 2003/2004. And the reviews are right; the movie is really well done.

For those of you haven't seen it Oldboy tells the story of Oh Dae-Su, a man held captive in a room for 15 years for reasons he does not know. He wakes up one morning free and spends the remainder of the movie trying to find out who did this to him and why. My friend Nathan described it as the best revenge movie ever. I would have to agree; there's nothing quite like it.

My favorite scenes (in brief with spoilers)

The fight Oh Dae-Su has in the hotel hallway after torturing his warden: this isn't a slick martial arts treatment, it is a desperate man with a hammer fighting his way through a hallway of thugs.

There is a flashback scene where Oh Dae-Su remembers meeting the young girl, Soo-ah, and witnessing her sexual relationship with a young man he would only much later learn was her brother. The cuts between past and present were incredibly effective.

The final confrontation between Oh Dae-Su and his captor. There is some fighting but it is secondary to the conversation where we actually learn why Oh Dae-Su was held captive for 15 years. Why is that length of time significant?

There are several gotchas in this movie but the biggest one came when I learned that Oldboy was based on a comic book. Like most movie gotchas if you pay special attention throughout the movie it becomes obvious:

The incest plot

The extreme amount of physical abuse an average person can survive

Oh Dae-Su is told if he doesn't figure it out why he was inprisoned they will kill him in 5 days.

If Oh Dae-Su does figure out why he was imprisoned his captor will kill himself,

His captor has a killswitch in his pacemaker that his doctor added at his request.

This sort of ridiculousness is pretty common in manga and would normally jump out at me. It is a testament of great filmmaking that I didn't notice them sooner.

Worse Than Death

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:04:00 +0000

I'm pretty sure I am not afraid of death;
no more than anyone else I have met.

I am afraid my new dog won't like me;
and I'm scared my wife will grow to dispise me;

Any children I might have will not trust
in the God of Isaiah and Jacob

I will be alone, with just you Lord,
ready to face death, but bored.

Video Games and Aesthetics(A response to Magical Wasteland)

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:05:00 +0000

I would like games to be seen as art if someone can clearly place them within an understood artistic tradition. It hasn't really happened yet.

Video games are a young medium and if the community wants to push to re-define art as it is currently understood they need to have clear understanding of art as it is currently understood.

Wikipedia isn't a lot of help here in finding the two-sentence blurb on art definition. To be sure, there is plenty of subjectivity to be found when discussing art but there is also much to draw upon in terms of artistic tradition and history.

The recent N+1 article Cave Painting was an attempt to discuss that context. It touched on general aesthetic understandings as articulated by Kant and refuted by Nietzsche. Its conclusion in brief was that to the extent that they are both currently understood, games are not art.

Author and journalist, Tom Bissell submitted a thoughtful reply which disagreed with the article and suggested comparing game interactivity to theater.

Matthew S. Burns from Magical Wasteland also replied on his website and questioned N+1's understanding of gaming, art and aesthetics.

I am not a game designer or student of Kant; however; I feel that many of N+1's points were misunderstood.

Much of Kant's discussion of beauty centers on the context within which it is found. Therefore the suggestion of beauty qua beauty is problematic because its meaning is not objective. This is what N+1 means when they say "Art-beauty is not the same as being good-looking, or else Bond movies might be the most beautiful films ever made." Context is paramount or meaning is lost.

And while we're fairly certain Kant never thought about video games this does not mean his concepts are invalid. As you'll note from the link below Kant spoke generally enough to remain relevant.

All that said, any headway in this discussion will be helped by writers and thinkers who are able to have meaningful discussions in both art and gaming contexts (even if the intent is to re-imagine that context). Nietzsche understood Kant's arguments clearly so he could adequately refute them.

Unfortunately discussions on games as art rarely touch on any sort of nuanced understanding of artistic tradition or criticism. Most immediately understand art's problematic subjectivity to mean that nothing has (or can) be said on the matter, thus games must be art. N+1 acknowledges this when it asks "If video games have turned out to be art, then what has art turned out to be?"

At least with Tom Bissell there's the idea (the hope?) that his training as a journalist has conditioned him to try to see all sides of the argument as he frames the narrative.

Here's a great primer on Kant's ideas of beauty. http://www.iep.utm.edu/kantaest/#SH2a

SSX: Deadly Descents Has To Be A Joke, Right?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 20:46:00 +0000

I am a huge fan of the SSX snowboarding franchise. SSX 3 was on my top 10 list of everything for the 2000s and will probably be in the top half of my top 10 favorite video games list. When I finally get around to making it.

SSX 3 created a great snowboarding experience that focused on a mountain with three individual peaks. It had a free riding format on the mountain and as your character improved their skills and won events it would unlock new areas on different peaks. And of course there were also crazy costumes and music to unlock.

The game felt like the developers fine tuned everything fun about snowboarding that didn't require you to leave your couch. It was not a simulation game insisting you translate real-life balance and coordination into arcane thumb movements. This was purely an arcade afair - point yourself downhill and hold on!

Instead of unweildy menus for navigation the game encouraged you to ride freely, maybe looking for collectables or maybe just enjoying the scenery and music.

There is a reason I've not mentioned the events or races. Sure they were huge, and a lot of fun but honestly, they weren't the main reason I played SSX 3. It was all about the mountain.

When SSX On Tour and SSX Blur were released they were nice. On Tour let you actually ski, which was kind of neat. Blur used the Wii controls which was interesting (and difficult). But where was my mountain?

Maybe someone found it?

Helocopters? Parachutes? Walkie-talkies?

How about an AK-47? I mean, snowboaring is an eXtreme sport. What's more eXtreme than shooting someone riding next to you?

Don't get me wrong, I am excited SSX is joining the current generation. And yes that did look like a mountain. But why do I have a feeling the current developers might not know where SSX found it's magic?

First Impressions of DC Universe Online

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:36:00 +0000

tl:dr alright game, lots of customization aside from how you look. They stole a lot of ideas but incorporated it differently. Story does not live up to the preview for the game.

The Steam installation bug was corrected. I have not really run into any other bugs, aside from the chat system sucking and I am currently downloading an 11 gig patch. I hope they are patching chat.

The game:

I am still at the beginning. It is hard to get a good idea of MMOs before you figure out how the game works. I have only done a few quests, so my opinion of it is going to be limited to the character creation and what I have encountered in my small amount of play time.

My character moves around a bit like Spiderman, only with no webs, and has ice powers. He hits people with a big ass hammer, and he has glass looking skin. I chose glass skin because you do not have many options when it comes how your characters look. You basically get to pick sex, hair, skin, color and size.

There are pretty sweet power builds in my opinion; you can do a lot of different things with it. You get a powers rotation going with six available power related abilities, the rest have to be shelved for later... (An idea stolen from Guild Wars, but I think think the idea of actually having to roll out of something, instead of having a percentage of hits on you blocked makes the game more actiony). You have thousands of options for ability combinations depending on what you specialize in, and you also have a physical damage rotation which is done with combos on the mouse.

The story is a bit weak so far. After seeing the trailer they created for it, I was assuming it would have been a bit better thought out. But yeah... come to think of it, you cant really make 1 million super heroes at once and have an origin that makes sense. I think they could have improved the game if you could have had some input on your origin. Basically powers of several different heroes and villains were stolen and dispersed, you created a character and that was your origin. You were a normal guy, and you got one of these things that give you abilities.

So far I have only played on hero side. I have made one with a personality like Batman and one like Superman. There are 10 or more abilities (I do not remember them all, and I have not tried many of them), and you can combine those with 10 or more fighting styles. Then you choose your method of transportation. There is flying, acrobatics (like Spiderman) and super-speed. I think my next one will be a super-speed, mind powers, daggers assassin, with the personality of Batman.

You can create an endless number of possibilities; I think this is the game's strongest point.

They stole this concept from City of Heroes; I can't really fault them for that. I think it would be really hard to come out with a completely new MMO, but I definitely consider this one revolutionary, albeit, a bit cartoony.

I am pretty sure it is the first MMO action game. Not an RPG in the traditional sense. It plays like an action game. It feels more real time, and less like you are standing there exchanging hits. Though, there is a bit of that. They do not have a tank and a healer and some guys damaging. Since there is raiding done by large groups they still have to have roles though. However, there is no person just sitting back healing, staring at health bars. If a player has a super power that can allow the healing of other players, in order to have enough energy for their powers, they have to be kicking ass. Every role does damage.

Aion and Warhammer touched on that a bit, but their game play was carbon copied from World of Warcraft and EverQuest. It is time for something new, give me a few days and I will tell you if this game is it.

(This is a guest blog by my friend and writer, Shain Kirby. You can follow him on twitter @shainkirby )

Farstar on stage

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:51:00 +0000

Farstar on stage
Originally uploaded by shiitake

I have no idea why half the band is on one side of the stage but I like how this shows all of the stuff that is usually going on when we play.

Creating a Video Game on a whiteboard

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Game Prototype
Originally uploaded by shiitake

Every year or so my friend Jon and I talk about making a video game. We decided to actually take some action starting this month. I think we're probably going to use something ridiculously simple to make the game. And I think our friend Todd might help also.

I firmly believe it could be very easy for us to get caught up in the technical aspects and completely miss the game aspects.

This happens with musicians I know all the time. You can get caught up in buying new guitar gear and trying to get a certain tone or delay. But of course the song is pretty horrible so nobody wants to hear your perfect tone on your awesome gear.

Our game might be something like Trine (PC) vs Adventures of Lolo (NES); several characters with unique abilities have to work together to solve puzzles.

Here's a map I drew in my cubicle of how the game could work.

Each stage represents a different character with a unique power/skill and each lettered box (A-C) represents a room containing a puzzle they have to solve to move into the next room. This helps the player understand that character's power. The square in the middle represents the three characters finally teaming up to tackle bosses.

It's just an idea.
Nothing revolutionary or unique about it.
But it's one step closer to actually making something.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, a Winner.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 01:09:00 +0000

I love movies but have a hard time actually watching them. It's mainly an issue of time I think. Nevertheless, we finally sat down and watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World last week.

I must be in the target demographic because I pretty much tracked with the movie note-for-note: video games, comic books, band angst (!), being a crappy boyfriend even though you want to be a nice guy (!!), gin & tonics. I was so-so on Michael Cera and not at all sold on Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character (f'ed up hair and skin weirded me out). But 30 minutes into the movie I was convinced and I ended up really enjoying how the writer and director handled their relationship. The fight scenes were also great.

When the movie came out several reviews focused on how the characters weren't likable but in rom-coms most of that stuff scales, right? The tension in most Rom-Coms comes from a misunderstanding that could be resolved with one or both of the characters being honest or serious character flaws stunting the relationship. There is obviously overlap: my character flaw is my inability to be honest.

Perhaps the characters were hard for someone over 40 to "get" but I don't see how they're any more unlikable than a couple in and other rom-com. Pretty early on they were having meaningful conversations about the relationship. I liked the bedroom seen after Romona says they won't have sex and Scott basically replies, "This is nice... I think this is something I needed." The catoonish fight scenes seem just as plausible as the romantic hurdles in Bridget Jones's Diary, Pretty Woman or Sex and the City.

I might even look to buy this movie when it comes out.

Hydrophobia and Last Generation games.

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 03:54:00 +0000

After a long week of work and band planning I finally found a bit of time to play Hydrophobia.

So far it seems like a cool action game. Sort of a mix of Beyond Good & Evil and Dreamfall. Obviously having a smart, female protagonist minus the fan-service is a big part of that but it also looks pretty last-generation in terms of graphics.

I had a lot of fun with the last-generation of games so I don't mind. Hydrophobia looks like it would have been a decent xbox original game 5 years ago. The game is supposed to be cutting edge because of all of it's water physics. So far that has primarily been running down halls that are flooding while water appears to be dripping down the screen. That part is just OK. The sci-fi setting and characters are what I really like. Also there are not a ton of XBLA games that are doing the 3rd person action complete with a decent story. So water physics notwithstanding the game is actually doing something pretty unique!

Every week it seems I hear about another last generation game that is being updated for the current consoles. It used to be that we'd just see a sequel to a game - but the proliferation of HD has really just given developers a fairly easy way to extend the life of a game that is several years old. Instead of spending millions of dollars on developing a new game you can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars updating all of the game textures to HD. I don't imagine it is an easy task but it must be easier that having to start from scratch. If/when 3D takes off I doubt it will be that easy!

There are so many games for the last generation that I never got to play that I'm actually really excited to be able to pick them up again. This makes more sense considering that both Microsoft and Sony are attempting to extend the lives of their consoles for at least 2-3 years. If last generation games are updated and bundled with their sequels or (better yet!) available simply for download through Xbox live/PSN - I will meet them with my wallet!

Here are a few games I know are being re-release and a few I HOPE will be re-released.

Beyond Good & Evil (confirmed for XBLA)
Ico/Shadow of the Colossus (confirmed for PS3)
Sly Cooper (confirmed for PS3)
God of War (released a while back on PS3)
Halo 1 & 2 (Wishlist) - Microsoft would be mental not to bundle and release these
SSX (Wishlist) - XBLA has no sport titles do they?

Blog Posts about Blog Posts are Boring; Lists are Not

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:56:00 +0000

It's so much easier to just make a list of things I've found interesting at my new job.

There is no training. I met my recruiter on day one and she directed me in getting my temporary badge and escorted me to the department. I got to choose my cubicle and was escorted to the storage closet to find a computer. I put it together, installed the new OS, figured out what my login was, and got it on the domain. Two recently new hires gave me hints. It was like being inside a PC adventure game where you are stuck in a room and have to figure out what to do by randomly clicking on things, picking stuff up and giving it to strangers.
This is not Microserfs. It's my favorite book and a large part of it takes place at Microsoft (circa 1993/4). I don't have my own office and I'm not coding full time so that's different. Don't let my first point fool you - EVERYONE HERE IS INCREDIBLY NICE. Literally 15 people have stopped by my desk to introduce themselves and offer their knowledge.
Maybe this Microserfs. Everyone is so kind to me that I can't help but have that nice warm feelings for them. It's like reading the book (except I don't cry at the end - maybe at the end of my 12 month contract that will change. That could be awkward).
Other similarities. Everyone is super into our technology. The campus has free coffee and drinks. There is a library in the other building where you can check out books for study and every time I walk over there I imagine that Bill Gates might be looking out of one of the windows judging any shortcut I might take (this will only make sense if you've read the book)
Geek stuff. I fill out a quick web form and 10 minutes later someone has built a virtual machine for me. To my exact specifications. This won't make sense to everyone but most computer users know that just installing an operating system like windows XP takes an hour. So getting something like this in ten minutes is pretty impressive.

I'll probably think of some more stuff later.

So What Have You Been Doing?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 16:16:00 +0000

It has been a very hectic couple of weeks. So I'm a bit behind on a few posts I've been working on.

Here's what has happened since my last update:

EP "Mulligan" by Ronnie Fauss was released. - I recorded and produced the record out of my home studio. This was released on FTG records.
EP "Gauzes for Before" by H...N was released. - tracked and mixed at my home studio. Released on cassette (and download) by Free Loving Anarachists.
I started mixing the Farstar record. This was imported from another studio and the tracks are well recorded but confusing. I'm spending a lot of time getting everything organized in a way that is workable. I've got about 1/3 of it roughly mixed.
I got a new job. I'll be doing SQL server support for Microsoft. I had to do plenty of studying to land this position and there is more learning to come! I start Monday.

I should hopefully have some time soon to update you on video games, music and other interesting things.

Anyone interested in a new project?

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:38:00 +0000

The Problem

Do you remember only having just enough spending money to purchase video games after Christmas or Birthdays. I use to only get 3 or 4 games a year. So I would play the heck out of them until I beat them or got burned out trying.

Of course now the challenge isn't actually purchasing the game. Now it's actually finishing with you start.

One of my favorite game genres is the JRPG. The art and story are usually pretty great (if often ridiculous) and I love the exploring aspects of their gameplay. But of course they're incredibly long. Most require at least 30 hours to finish.

I usually start a game I'm interested in, get a few hours in and have to do something else. By the time I get back to playing it might be days, weeks or months later. I've forgotten where I was and what I was doing. Was I still on one of the introductory fetch quests? Had I unlocked the full fighting system or was I still in a tutorial section?

FinishYourGame.com
Finishyourgame.com is a website that celebrates actually getting to the end of games. This can be the final cutscene and credits or unlocking every single achievement and trophy. You spent your money for the game and you want to finish it! FinishYourGame.com can help you do that.

Website features:

Users create a profile which allows them to catalog games they are currently playing. Several game websites already let users do this what FYG does is encourage users to create "game bookmarks" which will provide a brief recap so they can easily get back to enjoying the game. It can also include what they were doing, reference strategy guide page numbers, mission objectives, and a reason for why they stopped.

Users can maintain a list of games they have actually finished! Afterall - that is the point, right? They can also publish this info as a status update to Facebook if they are interested in that: "Lara just beat the final boss on Persona 4. Again."

Original content: regular video and/or audio podcasts highlighting recently released games and how potentially finishable they are. (Lot of reviews discuss game length and replay value - I'd like to add 'finishability' as a standard i.e. can an working adult realistically complete this game?)

Other content: Games Unfinishable - a spotlight of game that you won't finish because they are too long, too hard, too much of a grind. Old school arcade games like International Karate (photo above) are notorious for being difficult. But how about classics like Kid Icarus or Ninja Gaiden?

Potential features for the future:

email/sms reminders for themselves about where they were. Eventually these reminders could also include links to gamefaqs or strategy guides.
users might also choose to make this info public on the site allowing others to comment or offer play tips.

I'm looking for fellow gamers who would be interested in:

assisting with development (I'm currently looking at several Open Source Social Media platforms for the site but would need someone with graphic design experience)

writing and/or being on video discussing video games and related topics.

If you're interested feel free to email me - shannon [at] finishyourgames.com

Final Fantasy Can Save Your Marriage!

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:25:00 +0000

I've come to realize over the past three or four years that I don't travel all that well. Or as Lara tells it - I get grumpy.

My mother actually owned a travel agency so my family used to fly several times a year. As a result I was pretty good at it. I could easily navigate whatever airport I was in - I knew what to wear and say. If I wore a suit and flashed a travel agency business card at the gate I could sometimes get a free upgrade. They still card you in first class but you still feel like ninja sipping orange juice instead of a screwdriver.

It was harder with the entire family. My parents, brother and I didn't really get on that well but the territory was familiar. We all knew where to go and what to do.

And when you're sixteen what problem cannot be solved by headphones and Led Zeppelin?

In recent memory, marriage has presented the biggest complication. And sadly Zeppelin doesn't help.

The problem is Lara travels different than me: she navigates the airports in her rhythm, she cares where I park, she wants to eat when I want to go to the gate, her bladder is out of sync with mine. It's a nightmare; the person I married is a completely different entity from me!

And if that wasn't enough of a problem. I'm no longer a free agent. I can't just zone out with some Zep because I actually care. I find myself worrying about her. Is Lara comfortable? Does she need anything? If the floor of the airplane falls out mid flight will I be able to reach over to rescue her in time to save her from death? (For the last question I have a system worked out so the answer is "most likely".)

Nevertheless it stresses me out and I become a grump. We joke about it because I am okay with owning my grumpiness and she's okay with not being offended. But Lara loves to travel and I love to not be grumpy.

Our solution has two parts - the first is simple: we book seats on different rows. It sounds weird but it makes sense. Lara gets airsick which means she is most comfortable with a window. This generally leaves me grumpy in the middle seat. So we don't sit by each other. It's not very romantic and might prevent my rescuing her if the floor falls out, but we agree being grumpy is more unromantic and Lara can rescue herself.

Even when we sat by each other we did our own thing. And if we had children this would probably be happening already so it works. I must admit I stole the idea from my friend Laura who figured it out early on with her husband.

I did not steal the second part of our solution. In fact it is throwback to Zeppelin on my Sony Walkman. Except now it's Final Fantasy VII and VII on my Sony Playstation Portable. I had a PSP back in 2004 and was so bored with the games I sold it. When I heard that Sony was releasing the Final Fantasy games on their Playstation network I got back in the game.

I craiglisted a used game system and downloaded Cloud and Squall immediately! It's not perfect but it is wonderful. The games are thirteen years old and have aged like you might imagine but work well enough for a three hour flight.

I cancel out the noise with my headphones and get sucked into the grinding sublimity that is the heart of Final Fantasy.

I get off the plane in a great mood. Having my own seat and going back in time with Final Fantasy makes me more interested in the real life adventure Lara and I are beginning or ending.

And let's say, American Airlines has a database glitch and are unable to print your boarding pass. They don't let you on the plane, they close the doors in your face, they are extremely rude to you. And it's the day after Christmas!

When this happens Final Fantasy VIII, with its well document flaws, can be a lighthouse. It can keep you from becoming that seething ball of profanities bent on scarring children still recovering from pre-Christmas sleep deprivation and post-Christmas euphoria.

In its way, the game reminds you databases fail, middle managers are impotent and we panic when plans change but a comfortable chair and a few random battles can save the day.

Video Games: Art as More than Artifacts

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:48:00 +0000

It's great to see someone discussing the art of games without pointing to the artifacts themselves.

"And so our studio was born as an artistic laboratory. We decided to set a few experiments — test some ideas, confirm some assumptions and find the artistic tools, unique for the computer game form. Not ones borrowed from the filmmaking industry, painting or literature — but ones based on the uniqueness of playing a game, specific to the form from the very beginning. Ones based on the player’s freedom of choice, irreversibility, non-linearity and pseudo non-linearity of the process in real time… "

This is Ice-Pick Lodge's CEO Nikolay Dybowskiy interviewed over a year ago for Rock Paper Shotgun. He was discussing his studio's games Pathologic and The Void.*

This is the nuance that is missed when you try the brute-force argument that 100 graphic artists working on your game means it must be art.

*You can pick up The Void for $5 on steam. Do it now.

Video Games are Too Expensive to Be Art

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:45:00 +0000

I've got a few more articles I'd like to write on the subject of video games and art so I'm treating this one as an intro of sorts. I'm also expecting that I'll edit this for clarity and mistakes as I read/re-read it.

At the risk of exposing to the world just how geeky I am, I try to keep most of my video game chit chat to generalities. That means that my musician, mommy-blogger and otherwise professional blog friends can avoid zoning out while I discuss the finer points of my latest game obsession.

A while back Roger Ebert got a lot of video gamers upset when he asserted that video games weren't art. He quickly clarified that they couldn't be high art as he understood it; comparing them instead to sports. I really like video games but have to admit he makes a pretty compelling argument:Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices.

I cannot agree with Ebert that there is no potential for games to be art. But most video gamers don't really have a stake in what is or is not art; they're looking for some sort of justification for their chosen leisure activity.

Gamers who are angry with Roger Ebert don't care about art - they just want their wives/girlfriends off their case for being up till 2AM playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Of course, if you're an artists of some sort and you're doing that I'd love to hear you prove me wrong, but other than that - no sympathy!

I believe that games could be art but most lack the sort of intentionality that shapes most art. Art may be able to exist without intentionality but it requires an artist of some sort to shape it that intentionality. So by this definition, the assets in found art may have existed prior to the artist but it is not until they are declared art that they become art.

I started thinking about all of this a while ago when Jon Clark posted the following thoughts about his recent staycation:

So I was able to make about 3 months worth of headway into these games in 5 days. If (big if) I got halfway through all 6, that means that I need to be playing only these games over the next 3 months to 'finish' them. Thats pretty staggering in my opinion. I mean how is a person with a job expected to get through these games? The games industry acts like we need to be playing a new release every 2 weeks, I mean how do people do it? Even if I had no job, It would still take tons of time to keep pace with the exhausting release schedule of only the games I actually want to play..

The game industry is not intentionally making art. When they have to sell a million units they can't afford to be art. They are making the best game they can hoping to sell to as many 12-34 year old males as possible, as often as possible.

Studios force directors to edit their movies to make them shorter. Pop radio will only play songs that are less than 4 minutes long. Game companies add value by making their games longer. All of these decisions are more or less based on what the companies know people want. If you read just a handful of video game reviews you will find complaints if there is less than 10 hours of game to play.

This sounds unreasonable to folks who don't play video games but it makes sense. A new video game made by major publisher for mainstream consoles cost $40-$60; no matter how artistic it is gamers want a decent return on their investment. Which is a strong indicator that most gamers aren't interested in their game being art.

The price-point for experiencing art has to be less than $15. There are clear exceptions to this but if experiencing your art costs any more than this then you are probably not making art, you are running a business. Sure, artists have to make a living but I thought that was where the starving part of being an artists comes into play.

That said, art house theaters and galleries rarely charge more than that for tickets. Rock bands like Pearl Jam and Fugazi have worked for years to provide low-cost ways for people to see their performances.

Forget big budgets and trying to find the next Citizen Kane. We need to be on the lookout for the small studios and DIY ethics.

There might be a way games could be art but like any medium the easiest way to do this is move out of the mainstream and into the fringes.

Starting points?
Jay Pavlina - the creator of Super Mario Crossover
Jason Rohrer - the creator of Passage

Road Trip Mix 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:20:00 +0000

Megan at SortaCrunchy is road tripping to Texas this weekend and posted her playlist for the drive down. She asked for further suggestions and even though I have yet to hit the road this summer I decided to put together a quick list for her...

This is not one of those planned and over thought mixes; It took me about 10 minutes. But I did notice Megan's list was a bit short on anything from this decade so I wanted it to be recent, up beat and kid friendly.

MGMT - Kids
White Rabbits - Percussion Gun
Datarock - Amarillion
Jack Peñate - Pull My Heart Away
Ladyhawke - My Delirium
Miike Snow - Animal
Metric - Help I'm Alive
Matt and Kim - Spare Change
Robyn - Dancing on My Own
Santigold - You'll Find a Way
Shout Out Louds - Very Loud
Washed Out - Feel It All Around
Au Revoir Simone - All or Nothing
Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost

For most of my friends there will be very few surprises on this list. It's safe but fun stuff you've heard. And for everyone else this is great primer of indie hits from the last couple of years.

You can download it here if you're interested.

Jay Gummer with The Farstar (6/12)

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:53:00 +0000

Jay Gummer with The Farstar (6/12)
Originally uploaded by shiitake

Getting the Music Out of Your System

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 25 May 2010 17:37:00 +0000

Farstar and Paco
Originally uploaded by shiitake

In 2003, Paco Estrada's old band South FM let us open for them at the late great Gypsy Tea Room. It was the CD release party for our first record "Broken Down and Wandering". They were super supportive of us and we had a great time.

South FM dissolved a few years ago but we were excited to hear/play with Paco's new project. It was also nice to chat with him about making music when most signs indicate you should probably quit:

bandmates quit
the local scene dries up i.e. people stop showing up at your shows
every conversation about your band starts with "wow, I thought you guys broke up"
label drops you
wife asks you how much longer you're going to do this

I think we both agreed that at the end of the day it's all about making the music the keeps you up at night. Paco ignored the signs and put together a new group. It sounds great.

Keep it up Paco!

---

I met Russell Fincher for lunch last week. Russell was the singer for one of my favorite local bands, Robot Brown.

There is not much professional courtesy involved in schlepping gear onstage, but we've always tried to be cool to other bands. It was very easy to be cool to Robot Brown because they made such great music. They broke up several years ago but I still keep their EP on my mp3 player - it's so good. You can and should buy it now.

Every time we get together I bug Russell to come up to the house to record new music but I have a feeling that he's moved on. He's busy running his own company, making video game art and exploring other avenues of creativity.

That's not to say he won't write more music; I'm sure he's still got the talent. The music doesn't keep him up anymore, vying for his attention and keeping him from doing other things. Thankfully he's got other creative passions.

I'm going to keep on bugging him about it, but I told him that as soon as I get all this music out of my system I'll have to start making video games. Until then, I've still got some more songs to write.

---

A great song about my two favorite hobbies:

My PS3 Game Threshhold

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:35:00 +0000

I made a commitment to myself that I wouldn't purchase a Playstation 3 until I had at least 10 exclusives that were in my "must play" category. So far I haven't been able to fill all ten of those slots.

Here's my must-play list so far:

Demon Souls
God of War Collection
God of War 3
Trash Panic (psn)
Uncharted 1
Uncharted 2
Singstar
?
?
?

Possible additions:
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Heavy Rain

I told Lara in January that I felt like 2010 was the year of my getting a PS3 but she wasn't convinced. As you can see from the list above I am still not convinced. This decision would have been a lot easier if Playstation 3 still came with full PS2 backwards compatibility; we still have a significant collection of older games we keep meaning to play.

Until then, I guess we'll have to wait and see what new games come out.

Revisiting Myspace AKA Time Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Revisiting Myspace
Originally uploaded by shiitake

Without comments, videos, friend lists, or annoying backgrounds the site actually looks OK.

Facebook is getting more and more intrusive but I don't expect for one second that anyone will go back to using Myspace but it was nice to have the ability to go and strip all of the crap off of my old site.

I think the original goal of Myspace was to give everyone the freedom to personalize! In no time we discovered most people have horrible design aesthetics; people do actually go to 4 years of college to learn how to make non-offensive websites.

I like what I was able to do with my own space. I would like to impress people with the things I'm good at, not with my ability to copy/paste myspace code. If only there was a way to get rid of the huge advertisement. Oh and convince the other 10 million users to STOP THEIR INSANITY.

You are Too Proud and Self-assured

noreply@blogger.com (Shannon) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:55:00 +0000

That last post was really proud. So proud and self-assured that I was sort of annoyed with it.

It actually started out as a status update about how kind my wife is but I kept writing and it turned into a short essay.

But I am not sure about it. It seems too personal and not incredibly informative. It doesn't touch on the usual stuff I like to write about: creativity, video games, music. It does touch on the emotions and experience I draw from when I create. Which is relevant.

My favorite online writers like Merlin Mann and John Gruber have spoken about being an expert in the things you are passionate about. They would probably recommend erring on the side of casting a narrow net.

The creative things I do so much cannot be separated from the life I live.

So maybe it is okay being proud.