August 2015 Project Update Post

Once again I've been slow getting things done, although I did at least manage to take a vacation and am now involved in "serious business" redeveloping a course for my department. That's taken up quite a bit of time from everything in the last little while. So taking that into account it's time to reset the project goals and see where things stand. Mostly right now, I'm trying to keep my energy up and get excited and make things.

• Project 5 - SNES Coasters
• I still haven't put the backing on on the new, larger, test coaster. Once I get that done then it's just a matter of testing it out and seeing how it compares to the older ones. Getting the backing on will be a little effort but once that's done it's just a matter of using the thing for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to post a full update on October 2, 2015.
• Project 12 - Chrono Trigger Sprites
• I've done most of the planning for my next sprite. I need to check I have enough beads, and then it's just a matter of putting those beads together. Hopefully will be done the next phase on September 18, 2015.
• Project 14 - Sketch Fiction
• I haven't written much in the past couple of months. I'm going to try to push myself to write a little each day which should make it easy to push through 5 more quick sketches. Hopefully I'll have all five up by, October 30, 2015.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 98)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we creep and crawl, travel far away and have an idea about what we know.

• First, Kiri Callaghan gets curious about why we're freaked out by spiders. I have to say, I think my fear of spiders has a lot to do with how alien they are, as opposed to the spideryness. (Maybe.) Anyway if you are scared of spiders I think this video isn't going to bother you too much and may give you something to think about.
• Next CalebElijah playe Dazil, City of Burning Sands from Xenogears. Given the music in this game I think I may need to track it down and play it some time.
• Finally, on Idea Channel, Mike Rugnetta asks if Google is Knowledge. I have to say that primarily I think that Google is information that we synthesize in to knowlege. Furthermore I think accepting that Google is knowledge requires further consideration of how much you trust your knowledge.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 97)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we find the future we live in, live gloriously in the past through music and go a long, long time ago to a place far, far away where things were better.

 

• First, on Computerphile, Professor Brailsford, talks about the history of computing in the 1960s and 70s and how this crazy UNIX came to exist and make life better.
• Next, Laura Shigihara and Meine Meinung take your breath away covering music from Chrono Cross / Radical Dreamers. It may just be my nostalgia talking but as they play the bridge where it references Chrono Trigger, the hair on my arms stands up every time.
• Finally,  Belated Media once asked What if Episode One was good, like, really good? Well now he's asking about Episode Two. And seriously, how great would it be to watch this movie!?

Project 1: A Fifth Season of Blogging!?

Happy (belated*) Blog End and Start Day!

Apparently, I've been at this for a while now. As a quick reminder this blog is actually a blog in two parts. There's the "Blog as Project Discussion", which is actually the "point" of the blog and there's the "Blog as Blog", which is a project in the blog (Project 1 in fact). (And yes, that it's the most times I've written the word "blog" in a single paragraph.)

For the fourth season (from August 2014, to July 2015), I mostly posted blogs about YouTube. I've posted them because I'm excited to share the cool things I've found on YouTube over the years and it's fun to see old videos again. They're also quick and easy to produce, so they allow me to get a feeling of accomplishment. I also just want to see if I can "finish" the project now, we're down to about a 2 year gap and it is slowly shrinking.

Thoughts about video games, are also fun to make but they take me a lot longer to write and produce. I also like the practice of thinking about how a game works while I'm playing it, although it's taken a little effort to make sure that I'm still actually having fun while I play.

I've wanted to look more at the history of video game making from both a historical and technical point of view. So, if I can spend more time blogging, then you can expect to see something that looks more like that, although those will also take some time to produce.

Right at the moment my PhD work, both the research and the other things I've been hired to do while I finish my PhD are taking up quite a bit of time (it's like it's a job or something). I've also hit a point where I'm ready to get my things in order and finish. So above all of my projects, for the next year, my focus will be on finishing my PhD.

So there will be a fifth season of the blog. It may be sparse or it may be dense, depending on my focus, productivity and how creatively I can procrastinate. In the few months I've decided to try for two posts a week (Tuesday and Friday) even if they're both "Favourite YouTube Video" posts and I will try to keep that up.

Thanks for reading!

* Good work automatically posting Blogger. And actually I, rewrote this post just now and like it better so, thanks for not posting my post Blogger! But seriously, I need to figure out how the scheduler works for any future trips away from the Internet.