Archive for December, 2007
Christmas
Posted on December 29, 2007
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The snow from last week has turned not to water, but directly to fog. As a player of videogames I’ve long lived with the concept of “draw distance,” which is the most distant object a videogame will display at any one time.
A low draw distance means that objects, such as trees or buildings or people, simply burst into existence as you near them. This can provide a jarring reminder that you are playing a video game and ruins whatever simulation of reality the publisher was attempting to convey. Covnersely, a good draw distance may allow a game to display objects which are persistent and appear in the frame from the same point that a real object might have been visible under the same circumstances.
Unfortunately, draw-in is sometimes inevitable, and so a game designer will try to hide the sudden manifestation of objects that should have been there all along by reducing the visibility of the environment. By simulating a natural cause for your restricted vision the author seeks to match your expectations to his limitations.
In other words, you don’t expect to see an object that is obscured by fog or smoke, so the game fills in the draw distance with fog or smoke.
My neighborhood is like an ice level from Turok, Dinosaur Hunter. As the snow and ice melt it seems to pass directly from a solid to a gas, and the look makes me feel as if the neighborhood is desolate.
In a year or so perhaps this neighborhood will be desolate. How many of my neighbors have crazy mortgages? How many people are trapped owing more than their home’s value? Am I one of those? I’m afraid to get my house appraised for fear I may be in the same camp. I’ve never borrowed against the equity, but what little I have from my original downpayment and the principal paid in the last four years may have evaporated in the last few months. There is already one foreclosed house on my block (about a quarter mile south of mine) and another on the next street over. In addition there are about three houses for sale that have been on the market for more than two months.
One of those is owned by Home Depot (the original owner was a Home Depot manager who was relocated to Traverse City), but what of the others?
This week’s been rough on Heather. Holidays are the times when some people reflect on the things that aren’t right, or how they don’t match expectations of self or situation. She is frustrated with her unemployment, her limited social life, and having Samantha home for Christmas vacation has her frustrated multiple times on a daily basis.
I try to help, but I have no job to give her and while I can (and always have) been her friend I can’t provide her the sort of companionship a woman friend (or circle of women friends) can. Not even in my best dress and finest pumps.
Which brings me to Christmas. Those pumps were a present from my Mom. Thanks, Mom! I feel very pretty. I’ll bitch about how spoiled my relatives are making my girls next time. Just consider: they have no first cousins, and second cousins are all pretty distant. Everyone gives each girl between 2 and 4 presents, and there are about 20 people giving them gifts. So there’s between 40 and 80 presents each. How important is gift number 30 versus gift 29? How much gratitude can a little girl really be expected to show?
Sam Assists
Posted on December 26, 2007
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Samantha was game for the assist but actually netted a negative effect. But darn, wasn’t she cute doing it?
The Closure Redux Continues and Cute Kid Stories
Posted on December 14, 2007
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What your people call episode three my people call episode two. No maize need enter the conversation unless you’re jones-ing for some corn.
Mmmm…. corn…. That reminds me about one of my favorite throw-away jokes from the now-defunct cartoon show “Invader Zim” was spoken by the hapless protagonist, Dib. When he asks the teacher if he may be excused to use the bathroom he is informed that he’s used up his allotment of bathroom breaks for the current semester. In protest, Dib wails,
”But that was corn and mayonaise day!”
And that, friends, is one of many reasons Nickelodeon killed Invader Zim.
What my first sentence was alluding to in the most tenuous way possible was that Closure’s rewrite marches on and the new series is in episode two. If you’re a reader of the first run of book one then you’ll find that the majority of the events in the current episode two were actually episodes three and one…. Eh, its all nuts and bolts. Note I’m using Sarah’s excellent interpretation of Bruce. Oh, Sarah, how I miss your visits; I’ve been a beast, however, and haven’t visited you either. Apathy will kill us all, mark my words. Well, apathy and natural causes.
I promised cute kid stories, and here’s a couple.
In a conversation with Samantha regarding the cat, Sisco, we got to talking about names. For some reason I found myself explaining that a boy cat shouldn’t have the name Buttercup.
”Why not?” asked Sam, who was sitting in her bed about four feet in the air.
”Because its not really a boy’s name and Sisco is a boy cat. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be Buttercup.”
”We could always call him Mister Buttercup.”
Here’s another. Riley, who is now not-quite a year and a half old, has discovered the joys of having books read to her. Nice, thick board books with bright colors and pictures she can point at. To initiate the cuteness, we start by saying,
”Riley! Go get a book! You want to read a book?” the child then pounds across the room, arms swinging, towards her stash of baby books. She seems to pick one with care (often tossing undesirable fare aside) and then toddles back with a big grin on her face.
She doesn’t go straight up to you, however. No, when she gets within three feet or so she turns around and slowly walks backwards into you. If you are sitting on the floor she will then plop her little but onto your lap, book already in position for you to read it to her over her shoulder. This maneuver makes a bit less sence when you are sitting on the couch, as you must pick her up to get her in your lap, but its still a bit more convenient since you needn’t turn her about.
My toddler is all about efficiency, apparently.
One last story, and then I gotta go. One day a week or so ago I was serving hot-dogs to Riley. I had just placed the wiener on the plate and sat myself down in front of her high-chair to feed it to her. I presented the food to her and proclaimed,
”Hot-dog! This is a hot-dog!”
To which Riley replied–quite clearly:
”Woof-fffffffffffffff!”
Yes, she said woof (because its a dog, naturally) and then blew towards it, because I had said it was hot. Get it? A literally hot dog? Now that’s getting it wrong the clever way.
Closure, the Rewrite
Posted on December 6, 2007
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 Anyone remember Closure? It was my serialized scifi-noir I ran from March of last year through September of last year, and its second-to-last installment marked the end of book one. At its peak it had a decent following, and episodes had as many as thirty or so comments (form probably only six or seven people, but still). I’ve been meaning to get back to it all this time, and… well…. I’m rewriting book one in order to correct some continuity issues as well as improving the pacing and reducing the exposition. The episodes will be posted one a week this time, ensuring that I’ll easily keep up with the volume (I burned myself out running two a week last year) and, as a matter of fact, I’ve returned to working on book two, which should comprise the surprising completion of the story. You might think you knew where it was going, but I doubt you were correct. Here’s the deal, though: as part of an experiment to spread my seed in other wombs I’m posting the episodes at a place you might now know about, The Observationist. I’m not sure how good a fit my material will be over there, but it will at the very least expose it to a few new people. I’ll cross-post a couple days after the episodes show up at The Observationist, for those who feel more comfortable in my big, strong, safe arms. If you’ve already read all the original episodes, there will be only a few changes and you might not even notice them if you weren’t paying really close attention the first time around. You’re welcome to comment if you like, or to pass on the whole mess (if you feel betrayed by my one-year-plus hiatus). Tomorrow is my office Christmas Party, during which I will do my best to get banned from the go-cart track. |
