Grumpy Friday

There is so much talk right now about the marriage stuff that it's making my head spin.  I would write some articles explaining the craziness of it all; but who has the time?  Also, what would it do?  Seriously.  On a topic such as this, your mind is probably already made up on the issue and little is going to change it.  People throw up articles on Facebook not so much to convince others but rather to stir up trouble.

So many of the articles are the same anyway, rehashed and retold by somebody new to appeal to another demographic.  Old man, young girl, married couple, college girl, gay man, straight man.  It's like they've all been handed a list of points they have to make for their article by some central mastermind that isn't that good at being a mastermind.

I guess the only thing to really do is stop trying to convince people through two-clicks worth of effort linking some article that you probably only skimmed anyway.  Things are happening and effort should not be wasted on fighting skirmishes in the digital alleyways.  Instead, concentrate your efforts pushing others into action in the real world.  Rise above and all that.

I'm going to go look at cats...

Thursday...right?

Facebook equal sign day is over and for me it passed without much drama.  Browsing a little reddit I found that it became quite an enlightening experience for some facebook users.  Apparently plastering your beliefs all over the internet can cause tension between people who don't share them.  Who knew?  

It's all a bit like high school.  It seems like the biggest thing in the world when you're in it but in reality it's very silly and unimportant.  We can make huge social change through social media!  That's the mindset and it's really quite incorrect.  If the actions you take only exist within the social media world than they will stay in the social media world.  People talk about how social media is helping candidates win elections and influences voters to make a difference.  That's true in a sense but it's actually not quite right.

What is actually making a difference is that you are connecting with people who already share your opinion and notifying them to go out into the real world to do something.  Essentially you're doing a quick and far reaching text message.  It works and works well but it's not doing what people think it does.  People who use it to accomplish their political goals like to say they accomplished so much with social media.  However, it was a combined effort through rallies, door to door campaigns and social media that made things happen.  The social media aided a real life event and made it better.  Changing your profile pic and blasting some opinion on your wall accomplishes little. Opinions are rarely going to change in a social media setting.  

Say you're in a stadium with thirty-thousand people and you're hanging out with your closest friends.  You're going to mainly be hearing what they have to say because their in close proximity.  The remaining thousands having conversations will just be an indiscernible rumble.  If it's "wear your most politically charged t-shirt day", you're probably wearing the same or similar t-shirts as all of your friends.  Now, say a person from the fringe of your friends group walks by on the way to the hot-dog stand wearing a different t-shirt.  You'll exchange some words, maybe argue a bit but you're not going to sit down and have a debate about your views in the middle of the noisy stadium.  Especially since you have ten to twenty of your friends there to pitch in their two cents on the matter.  In fact, you'll probably both say some dumb stuff because it's chaotic and uncontrolled to begin with and possibly tell that person to go stick his head in the toilet.  There won't be any sudden changes of opinion.  There won't be really any change at all.

Now, say you're in that stadium and someone puts a message on the jumbo-tron that everyone who thinks cats are awesome should go out to the parking lot for free kittens.  A giant chunk of people will leave and go get a kitten.  That is the power of social media.  It's not to be underestimated but it's not the miracle working thing that people have grown to think it is.

</end rant>

Facebook

I did a quick buzz through my Facebook feed this morning and it was terrible.  I'd say about 70% of all the content was people linking pictures or videos.  The rest of the posts were uninformative and gave little to no sense of what people are actually up to in their lives.  I just don't understand it anymore.  It's especially bad a the moment with the supreme court looking at marriage laws.  Everybody has the same profile pictures!

I do love Ace Hardware though.  I picked up a new hammer and a chisel last night for working on the basement.  Man toys.  Can't wait to get going on that project, chiseling out cracks then filling them in.  Screw you water!  You're not getting into my basement.  :)

One more day...

I'm so relieved that the end of the week is here.  It's been a tough two weeks and I'm happy to be able to get back into my regular routine again after today.  It would really help if the weather would start it's warming trend tomorrow as expected.  I would see my mood improving greatly then.  

I have the weekend to myself and I plan to get a few things done.  Mainly cleaning up but also get some ships sketched.  If there's enough time...hopefully play a little Minecraft.  Should be a good weekend.

Ships!

It's been a productive evening!  In a burst of drawing madness I got 10 ship sketches done tonight and they are looking pretty good.  There is a good consistency across the board and some good defining features for each class.  There's still 10 more to go but I'm feeling pretty good now that I know I can get 10 done in an evening.  Woot.

Of course I still have to scan them in, add some finishing touches and add colour.  Work to be done but things are going well.  Feeling good about things though.  Bright point of the week so far.

CosmoViking!

Winter stall-out

The endless winter has driven my productivity into the ditch and buried it with snow.  Some unfortunate things last week took the wind out of my sails and the continuing bad weather this weekend left me drifting.  I could really use some warm and sunny days right now.

I tried to get back into Minecraft this weekend.  It was fun playing with the scores of new things available since the last time I played.  Fireworks!  Oh the fun.  I have a dream now of building a fantastic roller coaster that shoots fireworks and makes noises and light shows as you travel along.  I like roller coasters.

Anyway.  I'll be checked out from blogging for a day or two.  Carry on good people.  Spring will have to come eventually.

Rough Week

It's been a rough week.  Found out my Grandmother passed away yesterday.  After being sick this week I'm really turned around and a little lost.  I can't believe it's already Friday.  So that's about all I have to say this morning.

Ships!

Sat down and crunched some numbers for the ship designs last night and things are coming along nicely.  I was originally going to just draw a bunch of ships and see what happened but after realizing how many there were to draw I changed my mind.  There are a ton of ships in this game!  Wow.  

I figured by taking the various ratings the ships have in the game, convert those to cm and mm dimensions, they could be used as guidelines when drawing them.  By using these size ratings, each ship would then look appropriately sized when compared to each other on the screen.  Also, if I have the bones of the ships predetermined, the drawing will go faster.  Win!  

***

Anyway...sorry about this week and the quiz.  Being sick really threw me off my game.  I should really start thinking about getting the full website up to start showcasing the art and music work I'm doing for various games.  It would be nice if I could do a bit more of that for people once I get these projects done.  If it wasn't for this pesky job I could do it full time!  Think of the games people!  Think of all the games we could make!  

Round 2?

Alright, time for some ground rules.

I guess I underestimated the power of the internet when designing this whole trivia thing.  Also, I underestimated the ability to guess more than once per comment.  Silly me. 

Not sure how to deal with this other than to require you to submit a 2 page essay with each guess.  A right answer will not be accepted without this essay.  You must cite your sources, spelling and grammar count.

;)

Hey.

I'm back and feeling a bit better.  I've been tracking the marriage bill going through the Minnesota committees and it's going through quick.  The committees are stacked with Democratic supporters so that's not too surprising.  I wonder if it will have as much success in the full senate and house but we'll see over the coming months.  Just in case though, I went through the long and complicated process of becoming authorized to perform marriages in the state of Minnesota.  Heh.  Amazing what you can do on the internet these days.  Rev. Keith Johnson at your service. 

Short clue? Ok:

I am tall.

I used to be the tallest.

Oddly, I was supposed to only live to see 20 years old.

I am still standing.

Some considered me an eyesore.

Wicked sick.

Just so you all know, I'm sick and not blogging much.  It's a nasty flue of some sort.  Here's hoping today is better.

Friday

Friday is here and do you know what that means?  Google searchable clue help!

But first...

Nah...I got nothing today.  I actually haven't been feeling all that well the last few days.  I'm not sure what's going on but I'm feeling spacey and unfocused.  Occasionally I'm a little dizzy and I have a weird facial twitch  right under my left eye that is bugging the hell out of me.  I'm sure if I plugged everything into WebMD, they'd tell me that I have some horrible brain disease.  That wouldn't be fun.

Here's hoping a little warm weather and sunshine will help get me back into things.

FRIDAY CLUE!!!!!!!!!!

(Update:  Redbeard's prize should have gotten to him by now.  If not...I hope it comes soon.  Just to prove that you can indeed win prizes by prize blogging.)

It's not lacquer.  Lacquer is a polymer that does basically the same thing.  It's just oddly named.  Lac...funny word.  Comes from Sanskrit..."One hundred thousand"...which is neat.  

Anyway.  Let the Google racing begin.  

Hi.

You'd think with all the technology at our disposal there would be mounds of work at home type jobs.  It's wishful thinking perhaps.  Companies have to set up secure servers, ensure people have proper at home equipment and of course pay more IT costs to maintain the work at home network.  It's a daunting project to setup for work at home if you're a company that isn't very tech savvy.  There's a lot of numbers out there that says that working from home raises productivity and reduces lost work to sick days and such.  So employees think it's the best thing in the world (which it probably is) but to the company it's a major shift in operations that can be scary.  

We are on the edge of a major shift in worker familiarity with technology and mobile devices.  The mid-thirties crowd is fully digital and integrates technology into our daily lives with ease.  This first full digital generation is starting to influence how business operate.  A mid-thirties individual running a small business these days is going to have a huge advantage over an aging comparable business run by someone in their 40's or 50's.  The younger person knows how to setup an online shop because they shop online all the time.  They know how to use cloud storage and mobile devices to keep up on things when their out of the office.  They can take care of their own minor tech problems and keep their IT costs down.  Tech isn't a tool to figure out and manage like another employee, it's a friend that helps you get things done.  I guess the best way to describe it is the way each generation viewed tech helpers growing up.

Older generations grew up with robots being the height of technological assistance.  Somewhat mindless drones that had to be ordered around and were usually clumsy.  Cold and impersonal automatons.  

Younger generations grew up with artificial intelligence being a disembodied personality that is your friend and partner.  KIT from Knight Rider for example.  Jarvis from Iron Man as a recent example, or the computer from Star Trek: The next generation.  Also we play a lot of video games and become attached to certain game characters.  We connect with technology on a friendly level rather than it simply being a wrench.

Soon then, this younger crowd will push the old guard out of the top ranks of business and start breaking down some of the old traditions of work flow.  It will be a few years but I think we will see some big changes in the way we define a 'job'.  Working at home, a person could have four or five part time gigs and be more of a contractor.  Their workload would be fluid and ever changing as companies start and scrap projects.  Companies would benefit by only paying out for work done rather than paying someone to be around in case there is work to be done. It's going to get messy at tax time...

CLUE 4!

This product is natural and come from bugs!  Neat! 

What the what?

Tuesday was a crazy day.  Hugo Chavez passed away, the DOW hit an all time high and my wife thought I was dead.  Crazy day indeed.

Dead?  Yes.  Dead.  Scary really but a little funny in hindsight.  After shoveling the walks last night I was pretty worn out, then I went over to Mark B's to hang out and had a few drinks while we chatted.  I went home and proceeded to get comfortable on the couch while watching Saturday Night Live on Netflix.  Turns out I was more tired than I realized and passed out with the television blaring.  Beth got home a little later and after saying 'hi' a few times with no response she came into the living room where I wasn't moving.  I was sleeping hard apparently because I didn't wake up until she physically shook me a bit.  

After waking this morning she told me all about it and how she thought I had slipped into some sort of coma. Freaky.  I am not dead though, so don't worry.  Hugo Chavez is...not me.  

Seriously?  The DOW hits an all time high after favorable economic reports are released?  Crazy.  I thought this country was spiraling into oblivion and Obama was a dictator now.  No?  I guess certain media outlets should just settle down...or at least take a refresher civics course.

Anyway.

CLUE #3!

You most likely find it in a can...in a basement or a garage...if you were going to find it in someones house.

Tuesday.

Spaceships!  I'm very excited about this new space viking game that is in the works by my friend over at Froydlandia Studios.  ;)  Doing concept art is interesting.  A development team is like a weird body made of bodies.  Certain parts do certain things to get the job done but you can't share a brain so you have to guess what the other parts are going to like.  Even if you have some parameters, it is still difficult to know if your creations match what the person in charge had thought of.  It's a little weird.  Luckily, after tossing my sketches over last night I received no complaints.  That was good.  Now I can start cracking down on the final designs!  Can't wait.

CLUE #2!!!

Some people find it's source and method of preparation quite disturbing.  I think it's neat.

Running late!

If you're going to change your alarm to a different time on a weekend, you should really remember to set it back for Monday morning.  I made it on time to get things going at work but sadly there is no time to blog this morning.  Never fear however as I will be giving you a clue!

This weeks mystery thing is inspired by a weekend project that we worked on to spruce up our kitchen a little.  Good luck.

CLUE 1:

You've put stuff on it, maybe put it on stuff and probably even consumed it without even knowing!

Avians attack!

In a burst of inspiration last night I got the bare bones of the avian theme done.  I'm very excited because I had been lagging badly trying to get another theme done after the first ones were made so quickly.  Bolstered by my progress I decided to jump right into the arachnid theme but that didn't go as well.  

I think it's fantastic to be able to have the technology to have an orchestra at my command.  I want a trumpet part, I get a trumpet part.  It's amazing.  However, there are certain sounds and instruments that the software just doesn't do very well.  This becomes frustrating when you are working with a few instruments that sound amazing then you go to throw in a third and it sounds wrong.  It really takes the wind out of your sails when the sounds coming out don't match what you have in your head, you have to stop and decide what instrumentation to use instead that sounds more realistic.  

It's this kind of speed bump that really puts a damper on my creative process.  I have terrible sense of pitch which makes writing without the computer difficult.  I spent a bit writing down the bones of the arachnid theme the other day on paper.  I thought I was pretty close to what was in my head but when I punched it into the computer it sounded terrible.  Combine that with instrumentation that doesn't match what you want to hear and you have a pretty disheartening result.  

I won't be giving up though.  Not a chance.  It's worth it when things do mesh up right and after just a little work you have this music pouring out at you that you created.  When the trumpets and the strings sound just right and are playing the perfect notes it's amazing.  I'm not that good of a composer, my theory is terrible but there is something amazing about hearing your own work being "played".  Even more than the electronica than I write, the classical soundtrack work is by far the music I enjoy listening to the most.

Oooh.  Fun.  Hold on one sec...okay.  This is just a promo-video I made for a failed TV show but I wrote this theme in no time.  It just came out and I liked it.  Give a listen:

That's it for the week.  Congrats to Froyd for the win this week and next week I promise a better quiz!