Author: Rachel

Utterly Sickening (ACTA Three Strikes, and WAR)

Part I:

I am not 100% an advocate of the EFF, don’t get me wrong. But the ACTA “Three Strikes” idea makes me sick. This proposal would steal our rights to internet content – I don’t mean our rights to illegal internet content, I just mean our rights at all. This proposal would cause an ISP to remove the internet from your house (your ip address) based on anyone merely saying three times that you did something illegal, whether there is any proof that it happened or not. Allowing anyone, let alone ISPs, dispense justice without any defense or trial is severely WRONG.

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/leaked-acta-internet-provisions-three-strikes-and-

Part II:

http://www.warinternational.org/

So many women are abused, sold, and trafficked. We need to put a stop to this. It is a quiet fact that gets very little media attention though it is prevalent in so many parts of the world. WAR International (Women At Risk) aims to help these women. Please consider giving a donation.

 

I don’t know what we can do to stop either of these things, but we shouldn’t just ignore them.

Explanation of Game Benefits

Now I may be wrong since I have not actually participated/played either of these genres of games, yet. But games fascinate me. And I think I have finally figured out the difference between “Alternate Reality Games” and “Augmented Reality Games” (without consulting Wikipedia, ha). So of course I have to tell you.

An Alternate Reality Game is a game that takes place through/among various media – go to a website, find a location, go to the location, find a phone number, get a scratch card in the mail, figure out the code and go to the website (pardon the random examples). It is called “Alternate Reality” because you are navigating a reality of clues that others aren’t paying attention to because they aren’t in the game. Here is a list of some.

An Augmented Reality Game is a game that takes place through an electronic medium (like an iphone screen, or a GPS, PSP or DS screen) that you carry in the real world (hence Reality) and as you travel to locations in the real world, it generates things on the screen that you interact with that do not physically exist. Hence it’s “Augmented” by an extra layer of reality.

I had a hard time explaining the differences between those things in my head, and finally got it straight – by my reckoning, at least.

What do you think? Sounds fun to me!

I ought to be…

  • Finishing a brass-filigree-enhanced necklace that I am 5/6 finished with
  • Finishing a necklace of blue buttons
  • Finishing the Mech Dragon No. 3
  • Finishing a small clay robot I started a long time ago
  • Painting several clay pieces that I did not yet paint
  • Finishing a logo for Tore
  • Starting a logo for JD
  • Working on a logo for myself (Glimmerville)
  • Finishing 3 or 4 half-started drawings of a character of mine
  • Finishing a sketch of a new character
  • Figuring out charcters for that webcomic idea I had
  • Drawing a Dolphin for Laura
  • Drawing a Minotaur for Gus
  • Journaling for my part of the game night group story
  • Modding my pair of goggles
  • Praying about whether I can go on the missions trip in 2010 due to time constraints
  • Walking on the treadmill more
  • Praying & read the Bible more
  • Watching what I eat
  • Cleaning out the attic
  • Throwing away the clothes I do not wear even if I think I will fit into them again someday (ha)
  • Organizing my craft supplies (but I cannot function without clutter!)
  • Finishing a half-finished short story that I actually liked writing so far (been on hold for years, though)
  • Finishing the “Candlelight” drawing I started several years ago and still like

Feel free to add things you ought to be doing too!

Feel free to add things I ought to be doing that I forgot to list, while we’re at it.

Radio Isopod

I have a friend with a webcomic! I mentioned her in this post when I talked about webcomics. But I am mentioning her again! Her webcomic is called Radio Isopod and it has submarines, sea creatures, radioactivity, steampunk, and mad science. What more could you possibly ask for? Oh maybe a podcast! Well she has that too. She also has a webcomic for The Secret Lair, which also contains a lot of mad science and supervillainy and a podcast, yet is connected to a group of local friends I get to hang out with and play games. See a theme? Hmm.

And I am going to do a guest bit on the Radio Isopod podcast – I’ll toss you a link when I get one. But I didn’t even get that far yet. Because I wanted to draw a little bit of art for Natalie, who even sent me an awesome Steampunk Christmas card (procrastiate much, Rach?) so I am posting it here.

Also I went over all of my original pencil work using my graphics tablet, and this is about the first time I have ever not despised doing it. This is a step forward!

Casually Speaking

I like me a big old-school, gigantic, level-grinding, random-monster-encounter-every-three-steps dungeon crawler of a computer game (Final Fantasy #, Morrowind, Sacred, WoW…).

But sometimes I don’t have time for that.  (Actually WoW is another story – too cheap to play it, and also it’s one of those games that will eat your entire brain if you let it, and lead to addiction, for some.)

So here are a few of my favorite casual games, for PC.
Note, most of these are on Steam, but some are also available in other venues too (notably PuzzleQuest & Peggle are also on Nintendo DS, which is the only other platform I currently own).

1 ) PuzzleQuest – it’s Bejeweled, but every time you make a match, you get mana of that color, to use for spells! It even has a (standard, adventure) plot. This has a Space spin-off game, too. There were allegations of the computer being a cheater in this game, but the game designers said they didn’t have spare resources to program the computer to cheat!

2 ) Peggle – Cross pinball with pachinko, and add special powers. Insane fun, and lots of replay value! There is a sequel called Peggle Nights, but I haven’t tried it.

3 ) Plants vs. Zombies – Super cute Tower Defense without towers. Add in sunflowers, zombies, and catchy music. I cannot explain how fun this is. Go at least try the demo.

4 ) Spectromancer – Card-based mage vs. mage battle in tiny bite-sized chunks, with typos. Has online play too!  This game makes me trash-talk the computer due to the high random factor in your card deck. The computer HAS to be cheating. Grr…!

5 ) Wonderful End of the World – Strange Katamari Damacy clone with catchy music.

6 ) Osmos – Eat everything. Grow. Simple. Beautiful. Relaxing.

7 ) Cogs – Actually I find this insanely frustrating, but it’s so gorgeous! 3D tile-sliding puzzler with a strongly Steampunk theme. Shiny shiny brass.

8 ) AudioSurf – Automatically generates a race track based on the music you decide to play. Fun because you can see how well other people have done when playing the game using the same song you did. You can use ANY song – or even a podcast, but I’m not sure how that would work. This Week in Audiosurf would be a long game!

9 ) GemCraft – I LOVE this game, and it’s a free browser-based game. Tower Defense, there are at least 3 versions/expansions of this online (GemCraft, GemCraft 0, GemCraft 2) and they are all great, though I noticed some caused lag when I tried to play using wifi.

10 ) Scribblenauts! – This is the only non-PC game, but I just HAD to include it. This Nintendo DS game is mind-blowing. Solve the puzzles with ANY method you can imagine. Just type in the object you want to create! I solved one by gluing a rope to the back of a pterodactyl. Over 220 levels. Controls are clunky, but there are no other games where you can summon Cthulhu and have it battle a Kraken. Or a kitten.

11 ) What’s your favorite casual game? Let me know!

Now if you say “I don’t want to spend $10 on a game I don’t need.” I understand that too. So check out http://www.oldschoolapps.com – home for nifty, nifty old abandonware that has no license.

Ok one more free game link: Pixelships !

Webcomics

I have a poor track record with actually keeping up with reading Webcomics, notwithstanding the fact that I keep considering making one. But these webcomics are ones written by people I actually know (or at least, have chatted with). So, for your consideration, I present an incredibly biased list:
My long-time great friend JB has TWO comics – not regularly updating, but fun to read the archives. And any day she plans to start them up again, really. Follow Gwen, Rremly the dragon, and friends with: http://www.catharsiscomic.com
Further, JB breeds and sells Crested Geckos! You can follow their fictional antics here: http://www.jbscresties.com/comic (And if you are in her area you could buy one!)

DJ Trousdale is a fellow Christian I met on deviantART. Check out his comic here: http://djtrousdale.com/hexfactorial

Sticky (or at least that’s the nickname I know him by) has a Morrowind-based comic here: http://www.skaarj.com/comic/ That was a fun game. I didn’t finish the expansions – I keep meaning to.

I just met Samantha on Ustream last week, as she worked her way through the “24 Hour Comics Day” Challenge.  I have a big soft spot in my heart for overweight red-haired magic users (you in the peanut-gallery, shush) so I fell in love with her comic: http://www.witchytech.com/lifesawitch

Urban Fey is written by a mother-daughter team! I know Windy (aka. Kim) from JB’s comic’s forum, and also deviantART – what a tangled web 2.0 we weave. I was also in their Guild Wars guild. Go Team Mystic Sheep! Anyway they have a novel take on the court of the Fey: http://www.urbanfey.net/ AND are in the process of working on some more comics too! See what’s coming: http://www.mysticsheepstudios.com/pages/comics.html

I know Natalie from watching her illustrate other podcasts, and from deviantART. She has a webcomic of mad science and underwater adventures: http://radioisopod.com She also has a podcast! I did a guest mad science bit on it, once. Natalie has webcomics over here too: http://thesecretlair.com but if I told you about The Secret Lair, well, they wouldn’t invite me back. (I have an honorary title and that’s all I can say.)

Got a comic yourself?
Tell me about it!

 

 

 

Mech Dragon goes to War

Mech Dragon No.2
Mech Dragon No.2

I finally finished this guy! (Click for a larger view.) Not only that, but he’s sold! I’m excited about both of those things, but he was more work than I expected. He started with a tinfoil and wire base, then I added Sculpey, and Apoxie Sculpt on certain parts (like the horns and the inner wing core supports).

Inspiration vs. Distraction

I have an addiction.

Didn't buy it...yet

Frankly I am sure I have a ton of addictions, but I am only considering one in this post: I love to buy books. And, since I only have so much shelf space, I concentrate on buying books I can’t just go get in the library. Consequently, I don’t have that many novels (though I have my favorites). Instead I concentrate on How-to books and Field Guides.

Right now I have just noticed (thanks to Amazon suggesting it) “Yet Another Art Instruction book I Cannot Possibly Live Without”. The book is called Manga Matrix: Create Unique Characters Using the Japanese Matrix System by Hiroyoshi Tsukamoto.  Now anyone familiar with the stuff I doodle will say “But Rachel, you don’t even draw Manga style anything” and this is true. But I find the style (frequently) very pretty – especially when I think of Ghibli or sometimes Clamp, etc. I have several books on the style just to reference anyway.

But my real question, which should probably be posed over at http://Conceptart.org is this: When do you say to yourself “Intervention! Buying one more art instruction guide is not going to help you improve; actually drawing is the only thing that will actually help you improve”? 

That’s one of those questions I don’t like!

Zubbles have arrived!

They are just as fun as I hoped they would be! The package came with a 4oz bottle of pink, and a 4oz bottle of blue. I didn’t open the “Presto Pink” Zubbles yet, though I did open the “Blazing Blue”. Many others are clearly shown on the site – just not for sale yet…

The zubble soap is very, very dark in the bottle. You can see where a few drops spilled in the photo below. But the color vanishes as soon as you rub it away.  The bottle’s lid’s rim is a bit leaky sometimes which would not be obvious except for the dark color.

Bottle of Blazing Blue Zubbles
Bottle of Blazing Blue Zubbles
And in the air they look blue as can be, just as the hype said!
Blue Zubbles in Action
Blue Zubbles in Action

They were “very expensive” I’ll just say, but I’m so happy that they are finally on the market that I plunked down my dollars so I could get my greedy hands on them.

And they are whimsical fun – if you like soap bubbles! I will take them tomorrow and let my Pre-K Sunday School kids mess around with them.

TechCrunch vs. Scoble

Now I just read two completely contradictory articles – by prominent tech folks who know what they are talking about - on how to “manage your friends” on Twitter.

TechCrunch (Michael Arrington) states here that “there is an unwritten Golden Mean that shows ‘more people follow you, than you follow, therefore you are interesting and I should follow you’.” So if you auto-followback and follow people in the “vague hope they will follow you” you would not look like an interesting person and interesting people won’t care about you.

Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) states here that “you need to follow everyone, because you learn from the people you follow.”  So if you follow everyone all the time, you will enjoy having a huge user base of people to interact with.

(Paraphrases mine.)

I think I fall somewhere in between, when it comes to “Twitter philosophy”.

Do you have an opinion?