Check out this interview with Biden. Talk about hostile questioning. He takes this one like a champ.
Biden Interview
25 October, 2008
Mob Job 005
The Newbie Garden is typically not the den of coolness or the home of budget busting art resources.
Joel
24 October, 2008
Empire Total War
I cannot being to tell you how awesome this game looks!!!
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38337.html - This is the first video of the Empire Total War video's that explains the NAVAL BATTLES in the game.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/40753.html - Second video in the series of 5 that gives you a break down of the LAND BATTLES in Emipre Total War.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41950.htm - This is the 3rd video that explains the TOTAL WAR aspect of the game.
Woman in jail over virtual murder - BBC
A woman has been arrested in Japan after she allegedly killed her virtual husband in a popular video game.The 43-year-old was reportedly furious at finding herself suddenly divorced in the online game Maplestory.
Police say she illegally accessed log-in details of the man playing her husband, and killed off his character.
The woman, a piano teacher, is in jail in Sapporo waiting to learn if she faces charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data.
She was arrested on Wednesday and taken 620 miles (1,000 km) from her home in southern Miyazaki to Sapporo - where her "husband", a 33-year-old office worker lives.
If charged with the offences, and convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
'So angry'
A Sapporo police official, according to the Associated Press news agency, said the woman had used the man's ID and password to log in to the game last May to carry out the virtual murder.
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," she was quoted by the official as telling investigators.
Maplestory is a Korean-made game, which has grown in popularity around the world but has a strong fan base in the Far East.
The game centres on defeating monsters, but players can also engage in social activities and relationships - including marriages - through their digital characters, called avatars.
Are you serious about this... Come on does really show the end times or what. I should think that the "husband" should be greatful because irl he would have had no ballz. That is one CRAZY bitch!
Title is too cool to pass up ...
Was bouncing about the blogdom and found an article with a name that was irresistible to pursuit.
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/04-zombie-animals-and-the-parasites-that-control-them
Enjoy.
jof
http://discovermagazine.com/photos/04-zombie-animals-and-the-parasites-that-control-them
Enjoy.
jof
Three cheers for Eli!!
Eli, have to agree with Joel, this is a good job and idea here. Now we just have to get the rest of the guys on here.
Come on guys! Get on here! Or else the World famous Assassin will be a hunting for you!
Come on guys! Get on here! Or else the World famous Assassin will be a hunting for you!
Mob Job 003
In more modern and sophisticated games all MOBS have idle animations to make it look like they aren't just sitting stock still and waiting for players to come and kill them and steal their stuff. MCL is disappointed in the slap dash idle animation that he got from a typical lazy art department. Idle animations are reasonably complex for player models but usually quite lacking for MOBS.
jof
Mushroom Moment
Image supplemental to the series with MCL standing around and grooving on his headphones.
I think this is the point where I REALLY connected with MCL and got tired of drawing bunnies and dropped Theo out for a few episodes.
jof
Mob Job 002
Theo shows off his shiny new phat loot.
MCL turns away in the shame of holding loot and having neither hands nor pockets.
jof
Mob Job 001
Mob Job the First.
I have made cartoons with Theo and MCL in games as players and one in a game with MCL as a player and Theo as a guard NPC, and with Theo and MCL in the 'real' world playing but this is the first time to have us both in a game as Mobile OBjectS or MOBS.
jof
WoW losing its wow.
My cell phone was abuzz when the recent WoW pre-expansion patch came out last week. I was given a list of new sick and wrong things that characters could do. I also listened to the wails of my roommate trying to find 7 gigs of stuff to delete off of his hard drive so he could get the patch to install on the archeological relic of a computer that he uses.
Hunters can train elite mobs that were untamable before and finally got their 5 slots to keep pets in the stable that they had been begging for for years. The pets still shrink down to their old punyness but some, for the now, keep some of the effects from the parent object that they came from. Some dinosaurs from Ungoro Crater still shake the earth (and thus your screen) when you train them. Lowby pets autotrain to level 65 instead of being largely untrainable and unlevelable pieces of suck. Gorillas, recently a gimp pet with low armor, are pretty much the power pet now with the new pet training system and their aoe stomp. Hunters actually have tools to help keep their pets in control of aggro after the third shot.
A Retlol pally can three shot battle Shaman. Profanity abounds. Pally's have always been knocking at the door of being a class that can do insane damage and the door appears to be open finally. New crafting is in for runic inscription.
I gave up on WoW a few months ago even with the new expansion in the works. I didn't just stop playing. I deleted a good 3.5 years of characters. Even the level one place holders. The wow of WoW just wasn't wowwing me any more and I don't see it getting any better without a major shift in what the game does.
Sure a new expansion is coming out. I've seen that before. It goes like this:
New gear that makes the gear that you farmed, crafted, hustled and swindled for obsolete.
New money and time sinks to make you think there is still a game going on.
New powers that top off the incessant need for uberness that runs their marketing position.
You still get the joy of running about in different areas and killing new stuff that will become the same old stuff soon enough and percipitate a new expansion soon enough. With the new expansion coming out in November the groans of "this sucks" and "my class got boned" will resume in December.
Surely like City of Heroes has nothing in the end content besides beating up more loiterers and chasing after badges, WoW really has nothing but more Alterac Valley and more programmed encounters that take bolt on mods to run effectively. And run them for what? More gold and gear that will top out eventually to everyone and drive the need for a third expansion coming out in two years to start the cycle again.
Oh and in a vain attempt to make the old world areas still relevant somehow when people are now 5 manning and in some cases soloing Kara, they have badges now too. That's a sure sign it is time to keep moving and not to look back. Badges are the ultimate time sink for time sink's sake.
I am glad that I ditched WoW a couple of months ago and I plan to keep moving down the road and waiting for something that isn't heavily steeped in the MUD paradigm and worth my time as something new and exciting to waste my scores of hours and fifteen bucks a month on.
jof
Hunters can train elite mobs that were untamable before and finally got their 5 slots to keep pets in the stable that they had been begging for for years. The pets still shrink down to their old punyness but some, for the now, keep some of the effects from the parent object that they came from. Some dinosaurs from Ungoro Crater still shake the earth (and thus your screen) when you train them. Lowby pets autotrain to level 65 instead of being largely untrainable and unlevelable pieces of suck. Gorillas, recently a gimp pet with low armor, are pretty much the power pet now with the new pet training system and their aoe stomp. Hunters actually have tools to help keep their pets in control of aggro after the third shot.
A Retlol pally can three shot battle Shaman. Profanity abounds. Pally's have always been knocking at the door of being a class that can do insane damage and the door appears to be open finally. New crafting is in for runic inscription.
I gave up on WoW a few months ago even with the new expansion in the works. I didn't just stop playing. I deleted a good 3.5 years of characters. Even the level one place holders. The wow of WoW just wasn't wowwing me any more and I don't see it getting any better without a major shift in what the game does.
Sure a new expansion is coming out. I've seen that before. It goes like this:
New gear that makes the gear that you farmed, crafted, hustled and swindled for obsolete.
New money and time sinks to make you think there is still a game going on.
New powers that top off the incessant need for uberness that runs their marketing position.
You still get the joy of running about in different areas and killing new stuff that will become the same old stuff soon enough and percipitate a new expansion soon enough. With the new expansion coming out in November the groans of "this sucks" and "my class got boned" will resume in December.
Surely like City of Heroes has nothing in the end content besides beating up more loiterers and chasing after badges, WoW really has nothing but more Alterac Valley and more programmed encounters that take bolt on mods to run effectively. And run them for what? More gold and gear that will top out eventually to everyone and drive the need for a third expansion coming out in two years to start the cycle again.
Oh and in a vain attempt to make the old world areas still relevant somehow when people are now 5 manning and in some cases soloing Kara, they have badges now too. That's a sure sign it is time to keep moving and not to look back. Badges are the ultimate time sink for time sink's sake.
I am glad that I ditched WoW a couple of months ago and I plan to keep moving down the road and waiting for something that isn't heavily steeped in the MUD paradigm and worth my time as something new and exciting to waste my scores of hours and fifteen bucks a month on.
jof
23 October, 2008
How I Came to Be ...
Got a note from Eli, The WFA, to post something about how I came to write here.
Here it goes.
I guess I was in some oblique way at the forefront of digital art. I did ASCII art on typewriters in elementary school. I had dipped my toe in digital art as soon as the medium was available when PC's were first available in junior high school and the resolution max was 40 by 40. I wrote angsty poetry before it was even remotely popular and before Emo was even a guy who had a nerdy stand up act.
I went to school at Oklahoma State University. I majored in Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology.
I dipped farther into digital art here on the first computer network that I ever got to see. I checked out a key for the computer lab and didn't bother turning it in for about three years. I did my first 'cut up' experiments more than a decade before I read William Burroughs.
Top jobs back in the day were for the oil companies and I landed one.
At Mobil Oil in Torrance, California, in 1991 I had a graphics workstation that I used for a few hours a week publishing newsletters, training materials and slide presentations. It had a dye sublimation printer, a scanner, a slide and polaroid film printer, Aldus Pagemaker and pre-Adobe Photoshop. I spent many a night drawing cartoons and photoshopping people with extra heads and limbs and turning photos of employees posing with lingeree models from Texas Lucy's into nudes for extortion material.
I was laid off and thought it a freak occurance that I ever landed in California in the first place. Five months later I wound up there again and working as a safety professional for The Disneyland Resort. At Mobil there were kindred spirits. Many of the people in my office were from the same university. At Disneyland however I was a really big fish out of water and one night flipped through the yellow pages for a game store in hopes to find what I could find.
I had been reasonably big into gaming before college and bought and read a lot of stuff during college but gaming in college was limited to board games and the Commodore 64 in my RA's room.
I first met Al Forest at the game annex that he ran in the old high school off of Foothill Blvd. It was like the Prince taming the fox in 'The Little Prince'. I think I hung out there for about a month before I got three words out of him. When the little shop closed and merged with his dad's shop to become The Dark Forest, it was aobut three months before I had an apartment across the street. Two months after that I moved in with Al and Dee. I had found the kindred that I had been looking for since junior high.
In 1997 I left Disney. I was tired of the 90 hour weeks. I was tired of the bullshit that 'cast members' had to eat if they were hired from outside and didn't come up through the system. My father was also very ill and needed looking after. My parents also had a small business that needed some help. I will always miss Dark Forest and though I miss Disneyland, I don't miss being a salaried cast member.
Over the next three years I did my best to re-create Dark Forest Games. I think I succeeded with providing the enviornment but it didn't have the soul, the people, who were the heart of the operation. The creative and intellectual or just plain weird collection of folks that made it a fun place to be. Eventually Blue Horse Trading Company, my mirror of The Dark Forest, curled up in the corner and died.
Since then I have tried to be placed in the local job market. I am over qualified and too experienced for anything entry level and 10 years behind on my reading and legislation to get back into the safety gig. I have settled on being a curmudgeon who exists everywhere and nowhere due to the internet and playing Johnny Appleseed dropping my seedlings of prose, poetry and visual art in several places around the internet.
I am quite grateful that Eli invited me back to The Dark Forest. I hope to grow and have a hell of a lot of fun under its leafy boughs again.
Joel
Here it goes.
I guess I was in some oblique way at the forefront of digital art. I did ASCII art on typewriters in elementary school. I had dipped my toe in digital art as soon as the medium was available when PC's were first available in junior high school and the resolution max was 40 by 40. I wrote angsty poetry before it was even remotely popular and before Emo was even a guy who had a nerdy stand up act.
I went to school at Oklahoma State University. I majored in Fire Protection and Safety Engineering Technology.
I dipped farther into digital art here on the first computer network that I ever got to see. I checked out a key for the computer lab and didn't bother turning it in for about three years. I did my first 'cut up' experiments more than a decade before I read William Burroughs.
Top jobs back in the day were for the oil companies and I landed one.
At Mobil Oil in Torrance, California, in 1991 I had a graphics workstation that I used for a few hours a week publishing newsletters, training materials and slide presentations. It had a dye sublimation printer, a scanner, a slide and polaroid film printer, Aldus Pagemaker and pre-Adobe Photoshop. I spent many a night drawing cartoons and photoshopping people with extra heads and limbs and turning photos of employees posing with lingeree models from Texas Lucy's into nudes for extortion material.
I was laid off and thought it a freak occurance that I ever landed in California in the first place. Five months later I wound up there again and working as a safety professional for The Disneyland Resort. At Mobil there were kindred spirits. Many of the people in my office were from the same university. At Disneyland however I was a really big fish out of water and one night flipped through the yellow pages for a game store in hopes to find what I could find.
I had been reasonably big into gaming before college and bought and read a lot of stuff during college but gaming in college was limited to board games and the Commodore 64 in my RA's room.
I first met Al Forest at the game annex that he ran in the old high school off of Foothill Blvd. It was like the Prince taming the fox in 'The Little Prince'. I think I hung out there for about a month before I got three words out of him. When the little shop closed and merged with his dad's shop to become The Dark Forest, it was aobut three months before I had an apartment across the street. Two months after that I moved in with Al and Dee. I had found the kindred that I had been looking for since junior high.
In 1997 I left Disney. I was tired of the 90 hour weeks. I was tired of the bullshit that 'cast members' had to eat if they were hired from outside and didn't come up through the system. My father was also very ill and needed looking after. My parents also had a small business that needed some help. I will always miss Dark Forest and though I miss Disneyland, I don't miss being a salaried cast member.
Over the next three years I did my best to re-create Dark Forest Games. I think I succeeded with providing the enviornment but it didn't have the soul, the people, who were the heart of the operation. The creative and intellectual or just plain weird collection of folks that made it a fun place to be. Eventually Blue Horse Trading Company, my mirror of The Dark Forest, curled up in the corner and died.
Since then I have tried to be placed in the local job market. I am over qualified and too experienced for anything entry level and 10 years behind on my reading and legislation to get back into the safety gig. I have settled on being a curmudgeon who exists everywhere and nowhere due to the internet and playing Johnny Appleseed dropping my seedlings of prose, poetry and visual art in several places around the internet.
I am quite grateful that Eli invited me back to The Dark Forest. I hope to grow and have a hell of a lot of fun under its leafy boughs again.
Joel
Cthulhutech
I recently got a copy of Cthulhutech and I say its pretty good. You have madness, insanity, mechs, power armor, spells, psionics and engels (mechs that are alive). The Earth is invaded by Migou, cults have popped up, the Great Old Ones are waking from there deathless slumber.
You can do a down and dirty session and play a tager, who are those who have undergone the Rite of Sacred Union to merge with a supernatural symbiont. Occult Scholars Intelligence Agents, and Archnotechnitian who are part occult magician and part scientist. Mecha Pilots, Engel Pilots and the simple Soldier. The Para-Psychic and Zoner. These are but a small sample of the charcater types you can play.
You have your skills ranged 1-5 and they determine your level of expertise.
Level of Expertise (Dice)
• Unskilled Characters have no real understanding of the skill. (0 Dice)
• Students have a rudimentary understanding of the skill. (1 Die)
• Novices have a basic understanding of the skill. (2 Dice)
• Adepts have a thorough understanding of the skill. (3 Dice)
• Experts have an advanced understanding of the skill. (4 Dice)
• Masters have a nearly complete understanding of the skill. (5 Dice)
You take what you rolled and add it to your stat, that determines your skill. Average TN is 12 all the way up to a Legendary, which has a TN of 32. Now how do you get a roll that high you may ask? You get to add multiples together. You can take the highest set of multiples and add them all together. For example, if you’d rolled a 6 and two 4’s, you could take and add the two 4’s together for a result of 8, instead of just the 6.
You also get to add straights. If you get to roll three or more dice, you can take the largest straight and add those dice together. A straight is three or more numbers in consecutive order. For example, if you rolled a 9, 4, 5, 6, you could add the last three together for a result of 15 instead of just the 9.
All and all, its a pretty neat game that I want to give it a try!
-James
You can do a down and dirty session and play a tager, who are those who have undergone the Rite of Sacred Union to merge with a supernatural symbiont. Occult Scholars Intelligence Agents, and Archnotechnitian who are part occult magician and part scientist. Mecha Pilots, Engel Pilots and the simple Soldier. The Para-Psychic and Zoner. These are but a small sample of the charcater types you can play.
You have your skills ranged 1-5 and they determine your level of expertise.
Level of Expertise (Dice)
• Unskilled Characters have no real understanding of the skill. (0 Dice)
• Students have a rudimentary understanding of the skill. (1 Die)
• Novices have a basic understanding of the skill. (2 Dice)
• Adepts have a thorough understanding of the skill. (3 Dice)
• Experts have an advanced understanding of the skill. (4 Dice)
• Masters have a nearly complete understanding of the skill. (5 Dice)
You take what you rolled and add it to your stat, that determines your skill. Average TN is 12 all the way up to a Legendary, which has a TN of 32. Now how do you get a roll that high you may ask? You get to add multiples together. You can take the highest set of multiples and add them all together. For example, if you’d rolled a 6 and two 4’s, you could take and add the two 4’s together for a result of 8, instead of just the 6.
You also get to add straights. If you get to roll three or more dice, you can take the largest straight and add those dice together. A straight is three or more numbers in consecutive order. For example, if you rolled a 9, 4, 5, 6, you could add the last three together for a result of 15 instead of just the 9.
All and all, its a pretty neat game that I want to give it a try!
-James
Top Ten Will Rogers Ripper Offer
I received notification today that I am a top ten finalist for the 2008 Will Rogers Writing Contest. It is a contest to write in Will Rogers' style about contemporary events.
The final judging announcement is due on November 1st.
My entry is listed below:
President to Rally Troops in Fort Knox?
Owasso, Ok., Sept. 24. - This morning George talked about asking Governor Phil Bredesen to have the Tennessee National Guard to garrison along side the troops in Fort Knox. I think he figures on taking them right down I-24 into Atlanta. Looks like he wants those Russians out of Georgia pretty bad.
On hearing the plan this afternoon Josh Bolten told George that no, the Russians were in another Georgia. All troops were recalled but given a full day's pay.
Yours filling in a foxhole,
Will Rogers
Rogers Reminds Voters, Keep Your Shirt On
Beaumont, Ks., Sept. 25. - Election officials in the state of Kansas warn that buttons, ribbons, and t-shirts with political slogans ain't allowed in the polls by a state law that has been on the books since '74. Just like fancy restaurants the polls will have loaner clothes set aside due to a new bill just in case somebody forgets. It just wouldn't do to have the voters go topless.
Yours in an overcoat,
Will Rogers
Will Rogers Sees a Hole
Washington, D.C., Sept. 26. - Mr. Bush is bailing out more banks today. It's kinda like digging a hole. The more you work at it, the more of it there is.
Yours leaning on a shovel,
Will Rogers
Here Comes the Sheriff
Schofield Mo., Sept. 27. - Times sure are funny. Used to be the Banker would run and get the Sheriff to go auction off a mortgage. Now they dodge him when the note is overdue like the rest of us.
George still has that plan though and it's nothing like the eight years of plans that got us this far in the hole. Don't believe me? Just ask him.
Yours hiding a banker until payday,
Will Rogers
Ladder Sales Go Up
Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 28. - With all these stock markets falling the sales on ladders have gone up. You see a lot of these day traders run their computers in the basement and have to climb up to jump out of the window.
Up and at 'em,
Will Rogers
Mrs. Palin Goes To Washington
Yale, Ok., Sept. 29. - I don't go looking to knock politicians, they do a fine job all by themselves, but if she showed us how to put that lipstick on that bulldog instead of just talking about it I would be happier.
There is a lot of posturing going on. That don't mean walking straight with your head up, it's more the opposite with your neck and words all crooked. Politicians love to tell how the other guy is worse than themselves but certainly not that they are any better.
Yours in good posture,
Will Rogers
Will Rogers Spies a Rat-hole
Tulsa, Ok., Sept. 30. - Banks failing means the Treasury is going to pay to keep them going with our tax money. Bailing out the banks means keeping them afloat while they are doing the same thing that made them fail in the first place and with our money helping them and in them.
I remember when bankers just used to pad their pockets instead of pounding sand down a rat-hole.
The government sure goes through our money like they can just print the stuff.
Yours financially,
Will Rogers
P.S. -- To Janet Jackson in the hospital, get well soon. To Bruce Springsteen congratulations on the booking. You just can't stop the Super Bowl from getting in the news even in September.
-- Joel
The final judging announcement is due on November 1st.
My entry is listed below:
President to Rally Troops in Fort Knox?
Owasso, Ok., Sept. 24. - This morning George talked about asking Governor Phil Bredesen to have the Tennessee National Guard to garrison along side the troops in Fort Knox. I think he figures on taking them right down I-24 into Atlanta. Looks like he wants those Russians out of Georgia pretty bad.
On hearing the plan this afternoon Josh Bolten told George that no, the Russians were in another Georgia. All troops were recalled but given a full day's pay.
Yours filling in a foxhole,
Will Rogers
Rogers Reminds Voters, Keep Your Shirt On
Beaumont, Ks., Sept. 25. - Election officials in the state of Kansas warn that buttons, ribbons, and t-shirts with political slogans ain't allowed in the polls by a state law that has been on the books since '74. Just like fancy restaurants the polls will have loaner clothes set aside due to a new bill just in case somebody forgets. It just wouldn't do to have the voters go topless.
Yours in an overcoat,
Will Rogers
Will Rogers Sees a Hole
Washington, D.C., Sept. 26. - Mr. Bush is bailing out more banks today. It's kinda like digging a hole. The more you work at it, the more of it there is.
Yours leaning on a shovel,
Will Rogers
Here Comes the Sheriff
Schofield Mo., Sept. 27. - Times sure are funny. Used to be the Banker would run and get the Sheriff to go auction off a mortgage. Now they dodge him when the note is overdue like the rest of us.
George still has that plan though and it's nothing like the eight years of plans that got us this far in the hole. Don't believe me? Just ask him.
Yours hiding a banker until payday,
Will Rogers
Ladder Sales Go Up
Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 28. - With all these stock markets falling the sales on ladders have gone up. You see a lot of these day traders run their computers in the basement and have to climb up to jump out of the window.
Up and at 'em,
Will Rogers
Mrs. Palin Goes To Washington
Yale, Ok., Sept. 29. - I don't go looking to knock politicians, they do a fine job all by themselves, but if she showed us how to put that lipstick on that bulldog instead of just talking about it I would be happier.
There is a lot of posturing going on. That don't mean walking straight with your head up, it's more the opposite with your neck and words all crooked. Politicians love to tell how the other guy is worse than themselves but certainly not that they are any better.
Yours in good posture,
Will Rogers
Will Rogers Spies a Rat-hole
Tulsa, Ok., Sept. 30. - Banks failing means the Treasury is going to pay to keep them going with our tax money. Bailing out the banks means keeping them afloat while they are doing the same thing that made them fail in the first place and with our money helping them and in them.
I remember when bankers just used to pad their pockets instead of pounding sand down a rat-hole.
The government sure goes through our money like they can just print the stuff.
Yours financially,
Will Rogers
P.S. -- To Janet Jackson in the hospital, get well soon. To Bruce Springsteen congratulations on the booking. You just can't stop the Super Bowl from getting in the news even in September.
-- Joel
Mob Job 004
Mob Job 004.
Combat Alpha Testing.
Early developmental testing to check for normalized distribution of combat results to developers.
It means hours of pain and humiliation for Mobile OBjects or Mobs.
Stellar Idea
For what seemed lengthy at the time but in after-thought was a mere flash of moments we used to hang out and BS about everything and anything at the Forest.
Times have passed and there are at least time demands if not geographical ones that make it so we can't come together and socialize. Eli has won his spurs yet again by giving us this forum to get together and share bull, stories, opinions and just generally hang out.
Thanks Eli.
Joel
Times have passed and there are at least time demands if not geographical ones that make it so we can't come together and socialize. Eli has won his spurs yet again by giving us this forum to get together and share bull, stories, opinions and just generally hang out.
Thanks Eli.
Joel
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