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  1. Videogame : Game of the week* – "Triangles"

    July 25, 2007 by Collin

    Arrrgh… my brain… it hurts.


    Click this link to play “Triangles”.


    If that’s a bit too much crazy in a small space, try this one: Shuffle. So far I’ve made it through three games before losing by one round. If you really like it then you can save the .swf file to play it offline. If you have questions about how to play a .swf file on your computer, ask and I’ll answer.

    *Disclaimer: Actual length of a week may vary, depending on if I remember to find something for the following week. In extreme cases of forgetfulness a week could last as much as a year.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. Photoshop Tutorial : A Jing video of the “Gear” tutorial with sound and stuff.

    July 24, 2007 by Collin

    I didn’t play around with Jing as much as I’d planned to. Instead I got distracted by organizing the basement and throwing crap out. However, I did make enough time to rework the gear tutorial so that you can at least see and hear what it is that I’m doing. I made the recording area about twice as wide as the first one so that you could see my tools palette and layers palette. Unfortunately, since there’s no way to scale down the dimensions of a Jing video at this time, that means it’s pretty big. If you give the video a listen – it’s pretty short at 3 minutes 31 seconds – you’ll get to hear me appeal to God for technical assistance. All was not roses in Jing video land. Since it is such a wide video (992 px) I’m going to just provide a link to it, rather than embed it on the page:

    PSCS2 Tutorial 2 : Vector Gears with Sound

    I checked the box that says it will add a download link, however it doesn’t look to me like that’s working.

    Have a great week.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 1 Comment

  3. Humor : Saturday Morning Cartoons.

    July 21, 2007 by Collin

    In case you didn’t notice, there was no post on Friday. You see, there was this ball. I had it for awhile. I was even on it for a bit. But then I dropped it. I have no idea where it rolled. Hopefully I’ll find it by Monday.

    To make up for the lost ball, I offer you a Saturday post.

    Those of you around my age will likely remember the best thing in the world about Saturday mornings when you were a kid. Cartoons! Around my part of the world they started around 7 a.m. and terminated at noon, and that was all the damned cartoons you were likely to see for a week. What’s worse is all three broadcast channels showed their cartoons at the same time, so you had to be willing to miss out on a show you liked to find out how another show was. There was no internet in those days. I sound so old when I say things like that, yet I can’t stop myslef. No, you had TV Guide if you were lucky. Flip the channels if you weren’t. No wonder we shoplifted and set shit on fire in our down time.

    Well, the world has changed. Some of it hasn’t been for the better. But there are a crapload more cartoons out there, so it isn’t all bad.

    I’m going to change the topic now and share the news that the Democracy Player program is almost at version 1.0 and it’s name has been changed to Miro. Basically, Miro is a way to collect, watch and share web TV using bittorrent. Right now there are 1708 channels available, and it’s a free, open-source project, so there’s nothing you have to pay for. Much like cable TV, or satellite, a lot of it isn’t worth watching. Some is though.

    One channel I’m enjoying is Channel Frederator. It collects animation from everywhere, and even though I’ve only watched the latest episode – the rest are downloading – it was fantastic. I highly recommend it, although some of it’s not suitable for children.

    Another one that I’m getting a kick out of, probably because I’m bit of a pervert, is This or That!; a burlesque game show. This one’s absolutely not for the kids. I’ve only seen two episodes so far, so my opinion might change. But I doubt it. The Price Is Right, it isn’t.

    One final adult oriented show I also recommend is Man and Wife. Again, I’ve only watched one episode so far, but I laughed at least five times during the 11 minutes it lasted. That’s a pretty good laugh-to-minute ratio. Also, much like ‘This or That!’, it’s not for the prudish.

    What’s my point? Hell if I know. Give Miro a try. Look around. Who knows what you’ll find. Have a great weekend.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 1 Comment

  4. Tutorial : Taking ‘Jing’ for a spin.

    July 20, 2007 by Collin

    No, no Illustration Friday this week. Instead I’m testing out a program that, if it works as well as it seems to, should make my tutorials better than they’ve been. However they aren’t likely to be available to nearly as large an audience as they are at YouTube.

    The program I’m trying is ‘Jing’ :Home Site: and so far it works pretty nice. It saves videos as Flash files, and the size of the 1 minute 12 second demo that I made is only 1.3 MB. Also, it remains as crisp as it was on my screen. This time around I didn’t add any audio to the movie. Next movie I will. It’ll be interesting to see what it does to the file size.

    Here’s the video so you can see for yourself how it looks:

    Tonight or tomorrow night I’ll do this tutorial again, only with sound so I can explain what I’m doing outside the frame.

    So far I really like this program. My only concern is that it’s currently “not exactly” a public beta and, straight from their home page, “It’s something we want to give you, along with some online media hosting, to see how you use it. The project will eventually turn into something else.” What that something else is, and how much it’ll cost, I don’t know. If this proves to be as useful to me as I think it will, it’ll really suck to lose it.

    Oh, and videos are limited to five minutes, and without the ability to edit that could be problematic. And, if I record a full screen it won’t reduce it, so… We’ll see. I’ll play with it more this weekend.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 2 Comments

  5. Art & Podcast : Show announcement and I show off something old.

    July 19, 2007 by Collin

    This is the reminder that the latest episode of the ‘Son of Cheese Half-Hour Power Hour’ is up and you can hear it by clicking this button:

    A bit ago I was told by Derek that we have a new fan. Go us.

    Now on to the something old. I don’t know how many long-time readers I have, but quite some time ago I talked about a comic that I was doing for Mark Maynard and his wife Linette’s ‘zine ‘Crimewave’. The issue was delayed for quite awhile due to varying circumstances.

    But good news! The next issue has been put together and will be heading into production.

    The bad news is my comic won’t be with it.

    So, that being the case, I’ve decided to post it here rather than just let it vanish. To be able to read it, you’ll need to click the image.

    Print quality version here.

    Category Art | Tags: | 2 Comments

  6. Podcast : Woo hoo!

    July 18, 2007 by Collin


    Give it a second to load…

    Why I posted this will make more sense after (if) you listen to tomorrow’s podcast. Don’t worry, I’ll post a reminder link when it’s up.

    Original image found here: b3ta

    —

    Unrelated: On the way in to work today, I was stopped downtown on Colorado Ave. and Cascade, just waiting for the light to change. I’d just missed it. To pass the time I looked out my passenger window as I tend to do. I saw a guy who looked to be in his early 20s leaning with his head cradled in his folded arms against a parking meter, sobbing. Since I’d just missed the light I had a bit of a wait watching this guy cry. At one point he looked up and looked around with tears tracks running down his face. I avoided eye contact and looked away. I didn’t want to make him feel any worse by knowing he was being watched. A few seconds later I glanced back and saw that he had returned to his sobbing against the meter. A bit before the light turned green he straightened up, wiped his face with his sleeves, squared his shoulders and crossed Cascade occasionally looking behind him as he went.

    I wonder what caused him to break down like that. He didn’t look entirely homeless, so I don’t think it was a case of the street crazies. I say “entirely” because he was a bit grubby, but potentially employed.

    My first thought was that it was over a woman. He looked like a guy who had been dumped.

    My second thought was that he’d accidentally put his favorite coin in the meter, and he spent the whole time crying about it. My second thoughts are usually not very nice.

    I’ll never know the real reason why he was crying though. And now neither will you.

    The situation also brought to mind the time some friends and I were crossing a street in London when we saw a woman walking around, barefoot and topless with a dazed expression on her face, crying and talking to herself. When anybody approached her she would start screaming. It was surreal. I’m not sure why I thought about her, looking at this guy. I just did.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 2 Comments

  7. Video Games : My Shareware Game of the Month is…

    July 17, 2007 by Collin

    Jets’n'Guns Gold : Home Page

    It’s available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

    Jets’n'Guns is a side-scrolling shooter. If you don’t know what that is, watch the video below to get an idea.

    Normally I’m not that big a fan of shooters. With few exceptions, I feel the frustration of playing that kind of game far outweighs the enjoyment it offers. Jets’n'Guns Gold is one of those exceptions. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still frustrating as all Hell. In fact, it may be the most frustrating shooter I’ve continued to play after an hour. It’s fun enough that that’s okay.

    What I feel it does right:

    • There aren’t “lives.” You have one ship and it’s “health” is displayed in a gage at the bottom left. When you die it’s “mission failed.” …however. This is where they do it right in my opinion. You can try again with a press of the spacebar, so you aren’t limited to three, five, or 10 lives. Like many other shooters. If you’ve reached a checkpoint you will continue from that checkpoint. If your ship just isn’t configured right for the mission you are on, you’re better off hitting ‘escape,’ which takes me to the next thing they did right.
    • Things you buy for your ship – guns, missiles, bombs, even the ship itself – don’t lose value. That means if you buy an autotrack minigun for 35,000, pay 65,000 to upgrade it two levels and then decide you would rather try something else, you can sell it and get back every dime you spent on it. A lot of other games I’ve played either lock you into your purchase decisions, or they penalize you by only allowing you to sell your equipment back at a fraction of what you paid for it. Many, if not all, RPGs follow that “real economy” model, but I feel it’s stupid for a shooter to, particularly if you are limited in the money that you can earn. More on that soon.
    • The visual style is excellent. I love the look of this game. And it controls well.
    • Smacking into a wall won’t necessarily destroy your ship, although it will damage it.

    What I’m not that keen on:

    • It’s sometimes hard to tell what you can pass through safely and what will mess you up.
    • I’m stuck on the fifth level. I’ve reorganized my equipment six times trying to find a combination that will give me the edge. I’ve learned the patterns of the enemies that I’m facing and they still destroy me. I feel the game could really use the ability to replay earlier missions, even if you only earn 1/10th the amount of money as you did the first time through. I could probably turn down the difficulty, and I probably will end up doing that if I fail 20 more times, but I would like to have an alternative that doesn’t feel so wussied.

    And that’s about it. I really love this game. I also feel it’s a no-brainer to buy the gold version over the original version, even though it’s $10 more. Rather than rewrite all of what you get for that $10, I’ll just copy and paste what they say at the website:

    • Game resolution raised to 800×600! More space! More enemies on the screen! More items on the list in the shops making everything more comfortable.
    • Length of the game is DOUBLED! The campaign contains 21 NEW LEVELS NOW!
    • 7 new customizable ships! You will have at your disposal up to 10 warbirds in total! You will have an opportunity to equip and fly anything from jet pack to captured zeppelin!
    • 17 new weapons! Vast arsenal of the original JnG was widened even more! Try new stuff varying from crazy guns never seen in a shooter game to ultimate devastators, which will turn your screen into hell!
    • 70 new enemies! In GOLD EDITION you will face more than 270 unique enemies, including 16 terrible bosses!
    • Secret levels, items and ships! There’s more to explore in the new version. Try to find some hidden guns or ships!
    • Briefing texts replaced with comics screens!
    • New music from your favorite band! The game soundtrack was expanded with 6 new tracks!
    • Medals and ranks! Get some decoration for your heroic deeds! Make generals to envy your collection of medals!
    • and much more…

    Give it a shot. See what you think.

    —

    Also, it seems that I have trouble accessing Blogger to post these days, so if you find yourself itching to see what I’ll be posting in the evening, check out my Vox blog: http://fizzleandpop.vox.com/It’ll usually update well in advance of this site.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 3 Comments

  8. Random Observation : Oh that wonderful feeling.

    July 13, 2007 by Collin

    (This may double post because I tried to email post, but I was informed that the email would be delayed until sometime Saturday(

    That feeling you get when you’re finally able to work free a wee piece of something that’s been stuck between your teeth for some time. For me it’s usually that shell/skin thing that you’ll find in popcorn. Like a little razor blade buried in an apple made of popcorn, it hides and waits for the time when it can wedge itself between my teeth and cause me no end of annoyance throughout a movie that I would have paid good money to see if I didn’t have a pass. It wouldn’t be so bad if, at the end of the movie as the credits rolled, they would spontaneously leap free from my teeth so I could spit them out. But no. Those little fuckers have been known to bug me for days. I never seem to have a toothpick handy, so I try my fingernails, but it’s usually too hard to find the spot with a finger. My tongue always seems to know the spot though. So I give up on my fingernail and probe away with my tongue, trying to find that sweet spot that’ll lever that sucker loose. I wedge and wiggle until eventually I’m rewarded with that wonderful feeling. You regular flossers are really missing out.

    A piggy-back pondering: Do they sell popcorn at adult movie theaters? You know, places like where Paul Ruebens met his downfall. I’ve honestly never been in one, but if they do it’s not one of the selling points on the marquee: “Hot Lesbo Action! XXX Threesomes! Popcorn!” It would be great if they did though. That way the patrons could have something to throw at the screen during the boring periods of “plot development,” and it might help absorb “spills” between the aisles.

    Have a great weekend.

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 3 Comments

  9. Illustration Friday : “Geeky”

    July 12, 2007 by Collin

    For now, this is going to be where I post during the day. For some reason I’m having trouble connecting to Blogger. When I can, I’ll repost this at my normal Fizzle and Pop blog.

    So, geeky.

    Here’s my last minute geeky.

    Poorly done, but then this is also the first thing I’ve drawn in over a month. I’ve just been terribly uninspired lately. Anytime I try to draw anything it feels horrible. It was a struggle to even get this done. But there you go. Sometimes it’s just that way.

    Category Projects | Tags: , | 2 Comments

  10. Update : I have a better idea where my hits are coming from.

    July 11, 2007 by Collin

    Thanks to “Rule the Web”, I’ve installed a better stat tracker than what I was using. It’s called StatCounter (www.statcounter.com) and you can see it, and my stats, if you scroll down my sidebar until you see its icon. Don’t click on the icon for the stats, however. Click on “view my stats”. Anyhow, this is quite an impressive tracker. With it I’ve been able to determine that 217 of the last 488 visitors stayed for less than 5 seconds. 100 of those visitors hit my December, 2005 archive page. Damn near all of them came by way of a google image search. What image? Near as I can figure, this image:

    It’s the drawing I did of GIR from Invader Zim for Heather ages ago. Those of you unfamiliar with Invader Zim or GIR, I’m sure there’s a Wikipedia entry for it.

    Funny thing; the image was hosted at Flickr, however it was one of the things I purged in order to fix my NIPSA (Not in public search area) status last year. Yet it’s still there if you look at that archive page, as are several others that I cleared out. Some other things are gone. Very strange. Well, now it’s hosted back at SmugMug and it’s not just buried deep in the archive anymore. It’ll be interesting to see if the hits shift.

    Time to eat my lunch. Brick microwave oven pizza. Do I live the high life or what?

    Category Adrift | Tags: | 1 Comment

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