June 10, 2008
Soup
I was the only one left, in my usual booth. My friends had gone home and I was holding my one last drink, staring through the little window in the door out into the night.
Jag lumbered out of the kitchen and murmured for a while with Alyson the bartender before slumping onto the bench beside me.
Jag's real name was Jerome Andrew something-Italian-that-begins-with-G. As a kid, his mother had called him "Romy" and it took moving to the other side of the continent to shed that name.
April 17, 2008
The Sandwich
Tom sat at a cafe, sipping coffee from a mug, looking at the local paper without actually reading it.
He hadn't eaten yet and looked around for somewhere to get a bite. The cafe only served cookies and what they called scones, but he didn't want that sort of thing. He could see a donut shop and a deli at the end of the street. Tom could imagine what they had to offer, and knew none of it would satisfy him.
There were at least two each of taco joints, Chinese take-out holes-in-the-wall and pizzerias within a couple of blocks from where he sat, but having eaten at all those places in the past, he knew he wouldn't go back except out of desperation.
Continue reading "The Sandwich"
Comments (0)March 17, 2008
Grady's Adventure
In this adventure/puzzle, you control Grady the robot with the arrow keys. You need to construct a rocket by finding the three parts and bringing them to the rocket frame.
The rocket parts are being held by various animals that you need to trade with or trap in order to get the parts.
To move around you need the appropriate upgrades (wheel, flipper, wing, etc) but you can only hold three at a time, and the animals steal the upgrades from you.
February 06, 2008
Pangrams
A pangram is a sentence that includes each of the 26 letters in the alphabet.
The most familiar one is the old chestnut: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
I was sitting on the train to Philly with about an hour to kill.
I completed the crossword and sudoku in the local paper but still had about 20 minutes, so I created a game for myself: what is the shortest pangram I can write that doesn't use any of the words of the example just given? (with the exception of the word, 'the')
I started flexing my brain by trying to shorten the original sentence. The original has 35 letters, but it can be adjusted to: "The quick brown fox jumps over lazy dogs" at 33 characters.
So my target is less than 33 characters, although that seems ambitious with only 7 letter repetitions.
After some time I came up with: "A jovial bird maps the fog, quacking in the waxy haze." (42 characters)
It could be a little shorter, but the sentence would lose some of its coherence and rhythm.
I encourage everyone to try and come up with their own.
AskOxford.com is a fun site to surf around on if you enjoy fooling around with words.
November 14, 2007
The Chinatown Bus
The weather was improving in DC and it was good for walking, but I had just finished the meal at the Indian restaurant and felt sluggish. I hadn't overeaten, but Indian food always made me sleepy.
So I digested for half an hour or so and checked email, took a crap, gathered my bags, then headed out. I was north of the mall, and I had already been to the closest museum (Museum of Buildings, with exhibits on architecture and design. They had a nice gift shop although I hadn't bought anything) and didn't feel like walking far. So I headed to one of the $20 Chinatown bus places I had passed the day before.
Continue reading "The Chinatown Bus"
Comments (0)October 23, 2007
Peanuts, as Written by Charles Bukowski
From
Hanstock
in July '07
Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski Good clean fun from the Dirty Old Man
October 20, 2007
Frank Bourbon 1.1
Act I - Frank Bourbon and the Letter
Scene 1 - Frank
I woke up earlier than usual and after a visit to the restroom the cupboards reminded me that I didn't have any food in my apartment. I dressed in the clothes lying on the floor and when I went out I saw the door across the hall open.
Through the door I saw Frank Bourbon sitting in a chair putting on his favorite pair of socks. I can only guess that they were his favorite since he seemed to wear them every time I saw him and he seemed like the kind of person who would own a lot of socks.
And I recognized them because they were what I considered to be uniquely ugly, and I had given them to him. They had been a gift to me but I had never bothered to take off the wrapper, and a few months ago I happened to learn that he was going to be alone on his birthday. So I bought a pizza and some beer and spent the evening with Frank and I gave him the socks. He drank half of one beer and I drank the rest. After that I noticed that he always left his door open in the morning when he was getting ready for work. At least that was the case whenever I happened to be up and about that early.
Continue reading "Frank Bourbon 1.1"
Comments (0)August 17, 2007
Parley
Parley
(latest revision: 1.3 2007/8/17)
This was an entry for JayIsGames Casual Game Design Competition #3 I created with Joe Versoza.
It's a card game with a unique deck, containing up to 5 suits and up to 5 ranks. Unlike in a standard deck of cards, the suits are hierarchical, and also use a bit of rock-paper-scissor logic to determine what card beats another. Also, the ranks are hierarchical, as they are for regular cards, except in Parley the 'Spy' card (2-to-lowest rank) can beat the 'Queen' card (highest rank). Although it may sound complicated, it's pretty easy to pick up the rules after playing a round or two.
The new revision fixes problems with the AI bing too difficult.
Comments (1)August 08, 2007
The Delivery
Bart farted loudly. Nobody reacted. About half a minute later he scratched his rear and laughed a couple times, mumbling something about underpants.
I looked at Arnie, who stood in the corner, smoking a cigarette, staring at nothing. He saw me staring and looked back without changing his expression or blinking his eyes. I looked away first.
"So." I said. Nothing moved but Bart's TV screen and Arnie's smoke.
Continue reading "The Delivery"
Comments (0)May 14, 2007
You Tonight
This song originated as a 2AM brainstorm that took maybe 30 minutes to write. It then had a life as a song recorded by Mark and Christina, and I modified it for Michael and Zoe's wedding (where I was, unfortunately, too drunk to sing it well).
Then, the tv show American Idol had a songwriting contest, and I overhauled the song as an entry, making the structure more of a standard AABAB pop structure.
Anyway, it didn't get picked, but it's the nicest version yet.
http://matchstick.com/mp3/You_Tonight.mp3
Continue reading "You Tonight"
Comments (0)April 14, 2007
Frog and Vine
Jay, of JayIsGames had a game design competition and I entered with this:
http://jayisgames.com/archives/2007/04/frog_and_vine.php
It has 4 puzzles, three of which are original. Looking back, it's more of a prototype than a finished game. The tree puzzle in particular has potential to be developed into something interesting.
January 26, 2007
Vision #72
All women work in offices, retail, or service. All men work as freelance consultants, in the military, or are in prison
Comments (0)January 08, 2007
Go Rabbit, Go!
Go Rabbit, Go! (beta latest revision: 2006/3/2)
This game was developed over a few days as an entry in the DonationCoder.com Accessibility Game Design Competition.
The parameters were to simply make a 'switch game' (or alternately a game relying only on audio).
A switch game is a game with the simplest interface, a button that is either pressed or not - the space bar, mouse button, or other controller.
The idea is that people with limited mobility may not be able to use conventional game controllers.
Additionally, I consulted with representatives of the Univeristy of Delaware Center for Disability Studies in coming up with a game that could be played by people with a wide variety of abilities or disabilities.
In addition to the switch interface, some of the considerations were:
- LANGUAGE - If someone is unable to read English, whether they are do not speak English, are illiterate, or have impaired vision, the person should be able to figure out the rules quickly without having to read the instructions.
- DESIGN - The design is very simple so that people with impaired vision will still be able to distinguish all the elements from each other, which all differ in size, color, and texture.
- EASE OF GAMEPLAY - Most people (with or without disabilities) do not have the skills to play traditional action games. This game begins quite slowly and while quick reflexes will help they are not required.
- MINIMIZED FRUSTRATION - It can be easy for a person with a disability to get frustrated with a task that seems simple to others. "Go Rabbit, Go!" does not have limited 'lives' or any way to 'die'. Penalties for mistakes are mild and do not force the player to start again.
September 11, 2006
red and blue states
New theory:
Blue states are all about legs and ass
Red States are about tits
July 18, 2006
Vader Sessions
Comments (0)July 10, 2006
Postcard from Auschwitz
While my brother was living in Poland he traveled around Europe, visiting castles and WWII landmarks.
One day I got a postcard from him that he sent from Auschwitz, with a picture of a gas chamber on the front.
What was comforting to me was that he did not write 'Wish you were here'.
What was discomforting was realizing that Auschwitz has a gift shop.
June 29, 2006
Games for Change
When hearing or reading the title of the conference, I kept thinking about signs that read "Will work for food" morphing into "Will code games for change"
Over all the conference was not well-organized and was nothing at all like the Serious Games Summit I went to a couple of years ago.
Still, the notion of serious games seems much more accepted than it was back then.
Most of the audience seemed to be middle-aged women who seemed to care about the world, but had no experience with activism or with games.
A few of the panelists were good, but ended up dumbing-down what they had to say to suit the audience.
Continue reading "Games for Change"
Comments (0)June 17, 2006
You Tonight
I've done some research on what aspects of music make a song popular. I've become convinced that one aspect is the structure of the melodic line, specifically that it needs to advance stepwise as in a scale. Jumps greater than whole steps make the song more complicated, while repeating the same notes make a song more simple.
I intended to compose a number of songs based on this idea, and the one that embodies the theory best is the one called 'You Tonight'
Comments (0)June 16, 2006
Gnarls Barkley Star Wars
I can't think of anything cooler than a stormtrooper playing bass.
At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards Gnarls Barkley performed 'Crazy' dressed as Star Wars charcters.
The original video is quite cool as well. And it's actually a pretty good song.
Comments (0)June 14, 2006
The Messenger
The messenger came one night, very late.
He was out of breath and could speak only in a hoarse whisper. His skin was stone-cold from the wind and rain he had run through. We offered him tea and soup, but he would have none. He would not even sit, he said his message was urgent, that there was a terrible danger at his farm.
His voice became quiet, and only those standing next to him, leaning close could hear what he said.
Speaking louder again, the stranger pleaded for every able-bodied person to go with him back to his farm. My father and the others were reluctant, and some looked afraid, but the man seemed so desperate that my father and the other men and the women agreed to escort the man back home.
Then, the man's eyes rolled back and he collapsed on the floor from exhaustion.
My father helped him into a chair and someone got him some water, which he tried to drink, but it only dripped down his chin. Uncle John ran out the door, exhorting the others to go with him to the man's farm, and they followed.
My father suggested the man was too weak to return and that he should stay to get back his strength. My father then left, leaving me, just a little child, in my chair, with only my grandmother to attend me and the man.
I listened to the horses galloping away and watched the strange man's eyelids flutter between wakefulness and unconsciousness. When the room was quiet I asked my grandmother what the man had said when his voice had become so quiet.
Her hearing was not good, but she understood my question and had been sitting very near the man, hearing every word he had said. She replied, "The man said that a desperate stranger came to his house last night and begged anyone who could to return with him to his farm. All the adults left, and during the night terrible screams were heard in the distance, but by morning none had returned."
I sat still for a moment, then asked, "If all the adults at the farm left, and none returned, who is this man?" My grandmother frowned and looked at the man, whose eyes began to open.
He looked at me from across the table and put his hands on the armrests of his chair to push himself up. He smiled at me, and winked.
Comments (0)