Useful Latin Phrases Thursday, May 31, 2007

It's been a long time since I let out my inner language geek. Over a year, as I reckon — the last language-related post I made is dated January 7th of last year, when Patsy pointed the way to an article on What Tolkien Officially Said About Elf Sex.

And for those of you who perhaps never sampled the sheer depth of my geekiness, you should check out a post I wrote way back in 2005 called Grammatical Rules of Thumb, where I try my hand on making that "'i' before 'e'" thing more comprehensive.

But I didn't post today to reminisce about blog posts past, but to tell you that I am a happier and more fulfilled man than I was yesterday because I now have the ability to make lighthearted conversation at the Vatican. And you can too, thanks to this awesome list of Handy Latin Phrases, which includes such classics as:

• Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
  Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?
• Visne saltare? Viam Latam Fungosam scio.
  Do you want to dance? I know the Funky Broadway.
• Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
  I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.

This way you won't be caught tongue-tied when the High Pontiff invites you to his barbecue. You can just stand by the Sacred Grill and say to His Holiness sagaciously, "Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?"

Cindy Sheehan Quits Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Cindy Sheehan has quit, saying that her son died for nothing, saying that America was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland" and that there was no hope to end this war as long as Democrats value their egoes more than the lives at stake in an unjust war. According to CNN, Cindy Sheehan said this of her son, Casey:

"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.

"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."

I think she's right, and that it's tragic. The one public voice speaking out against a corrupt system has now yelled itself hoarse and will go quietly limping off in despair.

I don't blame her. I blame this ridiculously self-absorbed society we live in. People are happy to let the politicians play politics. As long as the economy is doing well, people will count their money lying down in their own graves.

Sound bites are not reality.

An election campaign is a marketing campaign. Government is now a product bought and sold. Caveat emptor.

What the Internet is For Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Thanks, Raph (it's the "West" link). Now I know what the Internet is for.

Doll Face Friday, May 18, 2007

Via Jay is Games' link dump.... here is a wonderful piece of 3D animation called Doll Face; a statement about the tyranny of the manufactured image and the price of buying in.

This and the Giant Girl Doll (thanks for the tip, Markus!) are the best videos I've ever seen on YouTube.

The Guitar Zeroes Thursday, May 17, 2007

A couple of guys from San Francsico decided to take Guitar Hero to the next level by hooking up the controllers to a computer and using them to make their own music. Their band is called The Guitar Zeroes.

40,000 Blowjobs Friday, May 11, 2007

Via The Forge, via Raph Koster...

A candidate running for a seat on the Belgian senate named Tania Derveaux is offering to give 40,000 blowjobs either in real life or in the virtual world, Second Life.

Apparently, Ms. Derveaux represents the "Nee" Party — meaning "no" party — and if elected, the party has stated that it will vote no on every issue before it. Apparently, voting is mandatory in Belgium, and this is a form of political protest.

The blowjob promotion is a response to what the Nee Party see as ridiculous one-upsmanship amongst the major political parties in that country. First one party promises 200,000 new jobs; their competitors promise 240,000. The Nee Party decides to take the very attractive Ms. Derveaux, have her pose naked, and promise 400,000 jobs, which somehow became 40,000 blowjobs.

This makes American politics seem almost dignified.

Not for Morning Muzzle Wednesday, May 09, 2007

So this is what Google says the German guys at PlasticThinking.org said about S3QUENC3R:

S3QUENC3R is a small Game for occasionally. It resembles the play "Simon says". Types the numbers in reverse order its appearance.

I suppose "small Game for occasionally" means "casual game".

One guy did comment on the game, but Google's rendering of it wasn't entirely illuminating:

Definitely nix for Morgenmuffel… are still much to unausgeschlafen for sowas. The play is completely nicely, although no Uber Game; -) The Highscore is unfortunately limited on 1540. If one would turn there still a little at the speed, one could make the open ended.

So I tried a different site: PROMT-Online. Theirs was a bit better:

Definitively nothing for morning muzzle ... has still unslept off a lot to for something like that. The play itself is quite nice, even if no Uber-Game;-) Unfortunately, the high score is limited to 1540. If one became there still a little bit in the speed turn, one could do open ended.

Not sure what "morning muzzle" might refer to; this has got to be some sort of idiomatic thing. Anyway, he did call the gameplay "quite nice"... I'll ignore the bit about it not being the Uber-Game.

I have some ideas for a slightly more developed version of the game. Based on the feedback, the main features I'm considering are:

• A timer to keep the pressure on. This is more for feel than any real game function. I don't think people are taking too much time to repeat the sequences. I find myself playing at a decent clip just to keep my memory fresh.
• Adjustable difficulty levels.
• Switching back and forth between reverse and forward puzzles.
• Open-ended gameplay. It's always been my feeling that a good game should have no ceiling, though S3QUENC3R seemed to so naturally call for an end when all 9 digits were in play.

If anyone can shed some light on what "nix für Morgenmuffel" means, that would be greatly appreciated.

S3QUENC3R Picked up by PlasticThinking.org Wednesday, May 09, 2007

A German gaming blog called PlasticThinking.org has picked up S3QUENC3R, causing another very nice spike in traffic and another 500 unique users in a single day. To sum up, S3QUENC3R has had about 2,000 unique users in just 5 days!

And, once again, no Diggs.

Everybody I talk to has the same response. First: what's Digg? Then: too much effort to sign up. Okay, I get it. Nobody wants to give away personal information just to promote my game. Personally, I've had a Digg account for a while, so I'm not even sure what kind of information they ask for.

But everything I've read about the whole self-promotion thing says that Digg is one of the best ways of driving traffic to your site. Maybe it's the wrong tool for this case? Maybe a deeper game would be more likely to get dugg?

Jay is Games Link Dumped Me Friday, May 04, 2007

As in put me in his "Link Dump Friday" post. Not that he dumped me. I don't know Mr. Jay, and I'm sure whatever his reasons would have been for him ending our hypothetical relationship would have been mutual, and we would have stayed the best of friends. That is, if dump meant dump and not dump. Erm.

So I checked the stats on S3QUENC3R and couldn't believe my eyes: after averaging around 20 uniques a day since the release, I got over 550 unique visitors today!

And not a single comment, Digg, or posted score.

*sigh*

Well, I would call this experiment in generating traffic for a simple game a success, though I do find it interesting that there wasn't a single user in the hundereds that visited who would do any of the aforementioned second steps.

Theories?

Top 3 Video Game Characters Friday, May 04, 2007

There's a meme floating around (started by Juuso of GameProducer.net and picked up by Corvus of Man Bytes Blog) about your three favorite video game characters. I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and contribute.

#3: Voldo, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur
What do you get when you cross Pulp Fiction's "The Gimp" with Darth Vader, and Wolverine? Not really sure, but it's kinda scary... an asthmatic-sounding, bondage-gear-wearing, claw-wielding freak.

#2: The King of All Cosmos, Katamari Damacy
He's a snazzy dresser, talks about himself in the third person, has an impressive moustache, and sports an enormous bulge in his pants. Oh yeah... and he's the King of the friggin' Universe. What more do you want?

#1: Lara Croft, Tomb Raider series
Finally, there's Lara, an icon of the video game world. She's smart, she's sexy, and she kicks butt.

I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch! Tuesday, May 01, 2007

This is retarded video humor sent to me by a friend: a couple of guys goofing on an old X-Men cartoon. Low-brow fun. Watch "I'm the Juggernaut Bitch!".