Myst Blogs

The discussion on the role of Cyan should prove one thing to you. It takes a while for dead ideologies to die. There will still be the hardcore supporters who will fight you. As the ideology dies, the views become more extreme and more fundamentalist. The tactics turn to bullying.

Cyan’s role in Uru has diminished and will keep diminishing and Cyan will be better off as a result for the reasons I’ve outlined before (it will free up resources). I have seen no coherent reason  why the community in general could not acquire an individual responsibility to decide their experience in an Age. Particularly since the fan Ages might be separate (and thus distinguishable) from Cyan’s Ages.

And yet, I was regaled in warning after warning of how Uru isn’t Uru without the strictly-cohesive canon (which it has never had). The level of delusion is what is truly frightening. Canon is GOD was a phrase actually used. Completely ignorant of the fact that Uru has spent the majority of its public life without canon (as Until Uru). The Liaisons didn’t cause a backlash when all of them quit in disgust and the event drove several away from Uru. There was a sense of absurdity in the statement that “Uru isn’t Uru” without canon. It was the same sense I got when a team-mate of mine claimed we weren’t making an Age for Uru, we were making a “game.” The correct continuation of both those thoughts is “to me.“

Uru means different things to different people. End of story. The more diverse number of reasons we can bring people into Uru for, the more successful it will be. None of the preferences the community has are exclusive. A poorly-textured Age doesn’t ruin all Ages for me. As such, a poorly-written backstory for one Age doesn’t kill all Ages for me. If you don’t like an Age, don’t come back to it or discover something about it you like. That is the mantra repeated over and over. It is a flawed mantra (as it can be applied to any number of atrocities in human history) but it is perfectly acceptable here in this lesser of concerns.

So how do we beat the bullies? There was a term used back in 2007, “concern troll.” It was (in some cases fairly) attributed to posters who registered just to fake concern and cry crocodile tears for Uru’s hopes of survival because Uru was missing this or that. The new breed of concern troll is the one who wrings their hands at how Cyan isn’t involved, how we’re so ungrateful, etc.

The easy answer, the stupid answer, is “ignore them.” But the problem is deeper than that and can’t be addressed by nazi-esque purging (is it Godwin’s Law if I invoke the Nazis on the side I agree with?). The deeper problem is that Uru abounds in diversity but lacks in understanding. This is why the way to beat the bullies is to let them build their own area and have it compete with others. It is not to set up their ideas as the “official” shard while everyone else is relegated to “fan fiction” status. That sets people on a pedestal that leads to anger and resentment.

Uru can be more successful now than before, but we need real rational ideas not antiques that ignore the new reality.

OK, only a geek can like this, but using XMPP (Jabber, GoogleTalk, LJTalk, whatever, XMPP is the protocol behind it, and it's a wonderful thing to toy with) to post to my blog has a certain, yet bizarre appeal. I might have to integrate this functionality into my own system :-P

High winds white sky (12 titles)	Bruce Cockburn	Folk
Ein Straussfest (12 titles)	Erich Kunzel - Cincinnati  Pops Orchestra	Classic
Lord of the ages (8 titles)	Magna Carta	Seventies
Blue lines (9 titles)	Massive Attack	Specials
Bay of kings (12 titles)	Steve Hackett	Slow Stuff
Strange days (7 titles)	The Doors	Seventies
Fireworks for Orchestra (11 titles)	Various Artists	Classic
Scratch my back (10 titles)	Peter Gabriel	Slow Stuff
Various (6 titles)	Dead can Dance	Heavenly beautiful
La Roux (14 titles)	La Roux	DanceMusic
Aquamarin (11 titles)	Friedemann	Slow Stuff
Hobo (9 titles)	Charlie Winston	Pop
Various (9 titles)	Bruce Cockburn	Folk
Play (18 titles)	Moby	Specials
She moves through the fair	Fairport Convention	Seventies
Non je ne regret de rien	Edith Piaff	Slow Stuff
Crossroads	Don Mc Lean	Folk
Winter wood	Don Mc Lean	Folk
Climbing up iknimaya	James Horner	Soundtrack
Jake's first flight	James Horner	Soundtrack
Well alright	Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood	Rock
Vincent	Don Mc Lean	Folk
The shoop shoop song	Betty Everett	Sixties
Convoy	CW McCall	Folk
Castle in the air	Don Mc Lean	Folk
Heaven's a lie	Lacuna Coil	Rock
Summertime	Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald	Swing
Tetrispolka	Polkaholix	Pop
Bright eyes	Art Garfunkel	Slow Stuff
Signed, sealed, delivered	Stevie Wonder	Sixties
Self conclusion	The Spill Canvas	Slow Stuff
The days of Pearly Spencer	David McWilliams	Seventies
Long as I can see the light	CCR	Folk
Lodi	CCR	Folk
Für immer und dich	Rio Reiser	NDW
Junimond	Rio Reiser	NDW
In my life	Johnny Cash	Slow Stuff
Angel in my heart	Mick Jagger	Seventies
I'm a rainbow too	Bob Marley & Fatboy Slim	Pop
What she came for	Franz Ferdinand	Rock
No you girls	Franz Ferdinand	Rock
Closer	Lacuna Coil	Rock
War	Edwin Star	Seventies
Unspoken	Lacuna Coil	Rock
Is it any wonder	Keane	Rock
Closing time	Semisonic	Rock
More than a feeling	Boston	Eighties
Johnny and Mary	Robert Palmer	Eighties
Fade to grey	Visage	Eighties
Bad to the bone	George Thorogood & The Destroyers	Rock
Dear Mr. President	Pink	Slow Stuff
Paperback writer	The Beatles	Sixties
Being boiled	The Human League	Eighties
Don't you want me baby	The Human League	Eighties
Total number of songs:	5140

Well, seeing that I arrived back home so soon tells me that my korvahk worked.  This is great, because now I can come and go much easier–the trip won’t last as long.  But this is also not so great because I may tend to go to the cavern instead of doing school work and lose track of time.  :/

Not to worry, though.  I went this weekend with a stack of grading a mile high, sat back in a fold-up chair in Kemo’s caves in the evening and breezed through the stack.  I also got my KI calibrated with the Great Zero and made a new KI marker quest game (right after I did Carl Palmer’s Relto quest…couldn’t find one of them…).  I guess there is some problem with the KI versioning and so I don’t have coordinates attached to my KI yet.  Maybe we just need more people synchronized with GZ.

I was going to post the instructions that I got for making my personal korvahk back home, but I seem to have misplaced the paper.  I can maybe paraphrase it:

The korvahk are actually all templates–most of it is written out, and you just need to make a few strokes towards the end of the book with the right ink in the right spots.  What makes this tricky is that the D’ni in these books aren’t no normal D’ni–there are characters that I haven’t seen before.  Sure, I can maybe piece together some of it from what I know, but it really doesn’t make sense.  Anyway, you make these strokes with a special type of ink you can only get in the cavern (I guess there is a storage of them somewhere…maybe in the guild buildings?).  You need a fountain pen–I guess it will do–and you make the strokes (kind of like dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s) and that’s that.  You then touch the panel and it feels like a temporal hiccup, and then it works.  It doesn’t work in the cavern, really–or anywhere on Earth, which makes sense, according to the rules the D’ni had about the Art.  I guess Relto’s just one of those weird exceptions that Yeesha found a way to do it.  So I stuck my new book in Relto–that will do just fine.

Anyway, I guess I should try to get some pictures posted.  Maybe I need to bring a camera next time.  I wish I could transfer my KI pictures to my computer–that would be nice.  I wonder if anyone knows how?  I wanted to take a picture of the fireflies that someone brought into the Nexus (how?) or to Gira.  They may well be dead next time I go there, oh well.

Once again I set out to edit my NaNoWriMo '09 novel into something that resembles a coherent narrative. Currently, it is a coherent narrative but it's the style that I don't enjoy.
For instance, back in November I glossed over five years in order to get to the part I wanted to write. The problem is that those years are crucial to the development of the main character, so I'm chronicling them, adding characters and introducing characters earlier. Right now I have a sense of deja vu, so I either have written about this already or I'm losing my mind.
Originally, the plot went something like this:
Act 1: main character grows up
Act 2: main character goes through the rest of his life
But, I have decided to split the stories into three acts. Three different stories that are linked together by the same character. So, hopefully, I'll have:
Act 1: same, just more detailed
Act 2: first part of the act 2, expanded to make it more realistic
Act 3: the last part of act 2, which will remain mostly untouched story-wise.
I have also decided to tone down / fix some of the 'magic'. It's going to be like opening can of worms, but hopefully tomorrow I will find time to write in here about the problems that poses.

Inspired by this comic, I decided to make a simple little Flash game. Check it out:

Vote for your favorite TV shows! http://www.hulu.com/spotlight/bestinshow/0/1

Looking for a good piece of Mac software to manage a budget

> open panel

Grabbing its handle, you slide the panel down into the wall.

> enter 75

You spin the the counter discs until they read “75”.

> press bronze button

A repeating high-pitched chirp, sounding about once per second, emanates from the control panel.

>

I favorited a YouTube video — Pedigree Dogs ad shot 1000 FPS using the Phantom camera http://youtu.be/mUCRZzhbHH0?a

Marein reviews fan-made Uru Ages in anticipation of open sourcing. Parts 1, 2, 3.

Here we go again!

If you don’t know what’s going on here, check this post.

From the makers of Enobmort: some sort of insane maze with countless tunnels and ladders.

Violently crashes Uru and/or my computer soon after link-in. I managed to get this one promising shot, while I got the chance to turn around 90 degrees to face an interesting building before crashing. It’s a shame I can’t explore it.

Features a massive unsolvable maze with some kind of puzzle attached that ultimately seems to lead only to a two-page journal about the Age. Not very impressive visuals and minor atmospherics.

Some unattractive volcanoes and tiny creatures from the beginnings of life on earth. Note the ‘on earth’.

Has some quite interesting elements. Kind of small, but at least there’s no hours of running between places. Has an interesting back-story in a journal. Visually mediocre. The overall location is also a bit questionable; it appears to be an island floating in a large valley of rock.

A long corridor of ice leading to a large open space with interesting visual concepts, though not very well executed (shadows would probably help a lot here). Not much to do but read a story-journal. Also a somewhat hidden corridor that leads to a dead end. Plus on atmo for footprints.

The buildings look like stacks of playing cards, hence the name, I guess. There’s a tower to climb up and a link to Ae’gura. The end.

This small Age is just disturbing. First it disables your Relto book and there are psychedelic seashell kickables. Then you touch a crystal and it turns to nighttime, and there’s a journal which reveals that the creator of the Age has turned into a plant that wasn’t there before. The midi music doesn’t help preserve my sanity.

I guess this is another Age in the series ‘what did the Earth use to look like’. By now you should know that any review containing the word ‘earth’ gets a low integration rating. There’s also a weirdly moving chunk of ice.

This starts off as a weird physics puzzle, floating in the sky, but then there’s a hole in the sky and a cave system leading to a sort of huge ice-sailing arena, which is actually kind of nicely executed. There’s stands and VIP seats and everything, then there are these hills connected by gondola-like things. Not bad, though the place is absolutely ginormous. There’s countless cave systems and the arena itself is pretty much immeasurable. Then when you find the end of the cave system you fall through a shaft and are suddenly back at the physics puzzle between the clouds. Freaky.

This Age is quite enjoyable. It’s fun to explore and contains a puzzle or two, one of which has a cool reward ride. Graphically it suffers somewhat from the purple fog, but has some good modelling and nice textures. At the end is a very, very, VERY long walk, though.

From the creator of First Age of Dustin comes a place where you can find a hole in the ground into a strange frictionless control-room. Not very spectacular overall.

Well done visually (except for the treetops and missing footprints). The atmosphere is also quite nice, with gentle snowfall and a good ambient sound (though it gets quite repetitive after a while, plus there are howling/barking wolves… Not quite what I think of as ‘serene’). Unfortunately no interaction, rendering it enjoyable only for a short visit.

A huge, huge mountainscape that you can explore and find nothing in. The dense fog doesn’t help.

A Writer’s ‘home age’, with a library, study, book-room etc. I like the ‘shinelight’, but that’s about as far as my liking of the visuals goes. No atmo and interactivity is limited to opening a door.

Has nice visuals, interesting puzzles and also some sounds. Somewhat bogged down by the travelling times between places. Two of the puzzles I failed to solve, so perhaps there were more wonders than I was able to behold.

A place for testing footstep/ladder sounds.

A bunch of sprites with different degrees of rotational freedom. Again probably useful for testing purposes. Also creepy eyes that follow you around.

SuitUp (0/5)
Puts you in an EV-suit and immediately links you to Relto. Gb2Gahreesen.

That was it for this time!

I favorited a YouTube video — Skinput: Appropriating the Body as an Input Surface (CHI 2010) http://youtu.be/g3XPUdW9Ryg?a

After having a painful process trying to get Windows up and running, I’m thrilled that it looks like Valve games are coming to the Mac.

Hey guys!  I hope you're doing well.

This past weekend I went to a taping of The ShoW and helped out a little there.  They let me be an extra too, which was cool.  It was a little sad though, similar to when I graduated from high school but still went back to the football games to see the band for a little while.  It used to be my life but it's not any more.  I still have a lot of friends there, but it's slowly being replaced by new people who I'm sure think "who's this weirdo old guy?"

Kind of like if your favorite pet dies and you bury it, but you get so sad that you dig it up a few hours later and it's still your pet but it's not, and maybe you shouldn't have dug it back up because now when you think back about your pet you'll remember the nice things but also you'll remember its cold, stiff, sunken body.

No I'm just kidding.  Just wanted to take you on a weird ride.  Was it weird?  Is this paragraph weird as well?

Transitionally, I found out Ubuntu is available for the PPC architecture!  It's not officially supported but the community maintains it.  That's pretty awesome.  So I installed it on my Powerbook G4 (after about a week of tinkering with Open Firmware because apparently my optical drive isn't recognized as the optical drive so discs are not bootable, oyyy), and it actually boots faster than my Macbook Pro.  I've been using it a whole lot, almost as my primary computer.  It's great.

It's sounding like I might still have a chance working at NBC after all, according to the guys I talk to over there.  That's really good to hear, although it's sort of an emotional roller coaster.  If it ever happens, I hope it does before I get settled into some less-desireable job here in Michigan.  I'm not exactly sure how switching jobs works, but it seems like it would be difficult.  Anyway I think it's so nice that somebody over there hasn't forgotten me.

We got the 16mm test shoot back from the lab.  I cut some of it together in case you'd like to see it.  It's a little bit of actual test footage mixed with a lot of shitty handheld stuff we shot later to use up the rest of the film without lighting or anything.  The stuff I actually lit looks okay, except for the back room stuff where there's a huge glare in the middle of the frame and it's overall really contrasty.  We didn't bring enough lights to do a whole lot so I kind of just assumed it wouldn't come out at all and didn't put much effort into it, and now I wish I had because it still could have looked pretty cool.

Anyway, it's here on Vimeo.

• 18:02 Extremely relieved that my parents are safe @ home & not in Santiago. Still, many more travellers stranded in Chile, looking for a way home. #
• 18:11 Caribbean Cruises aren't anything like the Love Boats on TV tho. In the face of human tragedy, they're charging $$$ to ship ppl to safety :/ #

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I’m going insane trying to install some operating systems

@TheSims3 I hear murmurings of free stuff! Who doesn’t love freebees? I’ve got a “Frugal” trait and a “Lucky” moodlet!

I favorited a YouTube video — Rayado Ruffians Cindy, Too http://youtu.be/-_glIf7ISaM?a

This has been a tough one for me.  I had to travel across a couple states to get back home whenever I went.  I don’t understand how people can just go and come so easily, so I asked how they got home.  Camann gave me this response:

Oh wow, there is no excuse for this!

Okay, step one, ask around for blank linking books. These were REALLY hard to come by back when DRC was in charge. When you get one ask about basic D’ni and instructions for filling it out. Most people who deal in blank books will be able to assist you. TAKE GOOD NOTES.

Step two, go home the long way.

Step three, once home, follow your instructions for fill out the Linking Book. The book will bring you to the exact spot you fill it out. Choose wisely.

Step four, WHILE HOLDING THE LINKING BOOK, link to Relto.

Congratulations! You now have a fast way home!

Hopefully I didn’t leave anything out. It’s been forever since I made mine.

So apparently, people figured out the korvahk a little bit.  That’s kinda nice, and I will eventually get it working so I can come and go a lot easier on the weekends.  I have my book now, and setting up the connections.  I’ll see if I can get a picture of it up soon.