I need change

I need to stop reading about the economy and politics. Both are depressing, and reading about them is not going to lead to any improvement in my situation.

I have been having a conversation with myself about increasing my skill set. Right now I have my eyes set on learning how to use Django, specifically with the Google Application service and a SVN. I think that it's finally time for me to take the next step in web development and start using source control and frameworks. All that is really left to do it take the plunge.

I need to work on my web writing skills. After making a couple of wordle pictures, I have realized that my posts are often rich in unintended keywords. Maybe a useful web utility would be some sort of keyword usage tracker. A nice little pallet that sits to the side of your web browser and lets you know how many time you use each word. Maybe one that uses the wordle engine. For example when I ran driftmustang.com through the wordle processor it had the word "car" in huge print, but the words "drift" and "mustang" were nowhere to be found. Generally being more explicit when talking about things will probably not only improve my google rank, but the quality of my website content as well.

Right now it is 1 am in the morning, rather late to start, so for tonight, some Mario Kart, but tomorrow, it begins.

Not Sony cheering Madness only for Nintendo

Word Time Fun [wtf for short]

Came across a fun little website (www.wordle.net) that allows you to paste in a bunch of text to have converted into a fun tag cloud picture thing. After messing around with a couple of different texts, I realized that I had the perfect idea.

The Big Lebowski in 200 words:

Uncanny Valley predicts that Wacko Jacko is Future HUmans

I was going through the Downloads folder that OS X uses to store all the sweet things I find on Internets can came across a visual representation of the Uncanny Valley. If you are like me, then you have no idea what a Bunraku puppet is. Wikipedia will happily tell you that the "western" meaning of the word describe puppets that are manipulated by visual puppeteers. After reading a bit of Wikipedia, I continued searching on Internets and came across an altered version of the uncanny valley graph and a discussion of future humans.

See the graph and read the article:

http://www.openthefuture.com/2007/10/the_second_uncanny_valley.html

Remember the alien dude from Star Gate and how creepy he was. Or perhaps Michael Jackson is a better example. At this point I am not really sure why I even wrote this post. Maybe I wanted to discuss how Nintendo does a good job of avoiding the pitfalls of the Uncanny Valley by using cartoonish characters, even for user created Miis. The unlockable Mii character in Mario Cart is a bit creepy, not nearly as cute as the Miis we grew to love in Wii Sports.

I can Haz be Game Artist

One in a Blue Moon

My Cat's food hats my Fridge

Left 4 Death

not humans humans [question mark]

More Layoffs at Pandemic

It looks like Pandemic has made another large cut to it's Westwood California staff. This time it looks to be about 10%. With EA stock getting battered massively over the last 6 months, and the luke warm reception of their last title, on might wonder if Pandemic can continue to be a significant development studios without a StarWars injection.

I remember rumors back when LucasArts cut their staff down, that EA might pick up some SW franchises, maybe they will throw one to Pandemic to help justify their significant investment.

This is the second round of layoffs in just a few months for Pandemic, who seems to be doing a good job of cutting staff in line with game completion.

http://www.counterfeitgirlscoutcookies.com/poor-planing-ea-pandemic-lead...

  • By Geoffrey Chandler at 10/30/2008 - 20:58
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