Project 14 - Sketch Fiction: A Morning Disrupted

This is the second of six sketch stories. It's totally unrelated to the first, except that I wrote it and it's supposed to be short and simple.

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A Morning Disrupted

He came out of the dark smithy stretching and brushing out his beard. He looked up the road as far as he could see, finding no sign of Stera and breakfast.

He ducked his head back in the smithy, "Don't rush boys, no sign of the hot-cart yet."

The air was crisp and clear, and the sun was glinting off the city's colourful roofs. He took a drink from the water barrel, and sighed as he sat down, enjoying the feel of the sun on his face.

He pulled out his pad of sketching paper and started roughing in a sketch of the smaller lamp fittings Green Marlin had ordered for the new fishing boats.

He heard unhurried hoof-steps and looked up to see a young woman wearing blue courier leathers riding down the road. He shifted a little to slide the sketch under his apron, and nodded at the woman as she went past. Once she was out of sight, down the curve of the road, he pulled his paper back out and continued sketching.

He lost track of time as he sketched, but was suddenly called back to reality with a crash and raucous yelling. Jumping up, dropping his paper, he saw two young men on dark horses canter past, while up the road Stera's cart was tipped over, with her gear spread out all over the road.

Old Korin was standing in the middle of the road waving his cane at the the retreating riders and shouting "Ruffians!" while Stera was looking over the mess of her cart.

"Damned fools," Stera shook her head as he came up the road to them, "Not sure where they thought they'd get in such a hurry. The one of them turned his horse right into my cart, trying to get around Old Korin here! Knocked it clean over! And not a glance back to see what they'd done even! The poor horse!"

Several other neighbours had gathered by then and there was enough muscle to set the cart upright and gather up the mess.

"Ah well," Stera said, shaking her head again as she checked over her equipment and supplies, "Nothing's a day but challenges, I guess. Doesn't look like anything's too much the worse for wear. Glad I wasn't carrying fresh eggs today. Give me a minute to straighten up and then I'll get back to feeding you all."





 

Project 14: Sketch Fiction - Update

So again, I'm past a project deadline and I don't have five stories to post.

I'm still struggling to sort out how to keep myself productive creatively and still manage my actual work for my PhD at the same time. In January I started by cutting down on my giant list of projects and focus on one thing at a time. At that point I started to focus on my sketch fiction project and hoped, at a pace of one a week, to get five out by early February.

While I definitely haven't pumped five stories out over the last two months, I have at least been a lot more focused on writing. I think over all that's been a good thing for me. In my last update, I said I had progress on four stories, and while that's true, I want to do some more work to make sure they're good. At the same time a lot of the point of the project is for me to JUST ACTUALLY GET STUFF WRITTEN AND OUT THERE, so there's a push and a pull.

I have one story finished and in a state I'm happy with. That will go up in the next post.

The rest I'm going to take my time with, but try to keep myself on a deadline of one every two weeks. The goal is to have something that I can put out, even if it's not perfect. Two weeks feels like a really long time to take to write a few hundred words, but given that I've taken months already it may not be that unjust an estimate. And as an added bonus, if I feel like I've finished early then I can be ahead of schedule rather than behind it (what a weird idea).

So my next project is to put out another piece of sketch fiction by Wednesday, March 15, 2016.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 122)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get ready for adventure and the weekend all with the great things of video games and music.

• First, I've been having trouble getting going, so it's really nice that we get to start with Mr. Smooth McGroove pushing us out Into the Thick of It. So grab that rusty sword out of the stream and go fight the fluffy evil of your to do list. (Or at least that's my plan.)
• Next, Josh would like you to remember that Star Fox was Really Freakin' Cleaver. I like his point that the world and the sense of journey is the reason why Star Fox has stayed memorable. I remember being a kid, spending hours fantasizing about how amazing a Star Fox II could be, especially imagining it letting you pick different paths and having more complex interactions with your squad mates (like having them actually shoot things). I think a lot of that came from how well the world grabbed me.
  Also, I have been creeping out my friends for years by saying  good luck like the flight controller in the beginning of Star Fox.  (Actually they've probably never noticed, but hey, I like doing it anyway.)
• Finally, Hank is ready for the weekend, playing half a century's worth of music all with the same damn cord progression.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 121)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we look at the shells we build for ourselves, the shells people gloop on to our heads and strawberries. (If he'd used peas I'd have had a chance. Thanks a lot John.)

• First, Ze Frank reads "If you are in a shell" and Harry Shum Jr. dances. If you have the time, stop what you're doing and put this one full screen (and I think bigger screen is better). It's very touching and I had one of those discovering my hands moments after I finished watching. And if you are in a shell, then this video is a nice reminder that you can always move.
• Next, somewhat in contradiction to the first video, we watch Frank Ippolito put Norm Chan in a shell, so that later, they can build a shell for him. Or actually, make a life cast of him, which is more cool. This is part of Tested.com's Zoidberg project.
• Finally, we check in with John Green for an update about things. This one is a video from an interesting time and it's nice to reach back and feel all the excitement when The Fault in Our Stars was starting production and Esther was getting published and the Dons were getting sponsored by Nerdfighteria.

Project 14: Sketch Fiction - Update

You may or may not have noticed, but I haven't uploaded any sketch fiction since my last project update. That's not great, but I am pleased to say that I have been writing and you should start to see new fiction posted pretty soon.

Of the five sketches I still have to finish I've mostly written 4 of them. I still need to finish and edit them, but I expect to get them up fairly soon now. The last one, well I haven't been too sure what to write, but I guess it's time to make the iron hot by striking.

So, I hope to post most of the sketches in the next week or two. I'm going to push my deadline to February 23, 2016.

Blog: Video Games of January 2016.

A little while ago, I decided that I'd like to put together a "Game of the Games I Played this Year." This tends to be a little difficult though because I never actually remember what I've been playing after a little while. So, I thought it might be fun/a good idea to keep track of what I played this year.

I seem to have pulled it off, so far, and now, by time played, I have six "top" games for the month:

1. Europa Universalis 4 - I played a lot of EU4 and I did it all in about 4 days (see the chart below). I don't think it would be weird to say I have some very mixed feelings about it, and not just because I'm now terrified of the Commonwealth.  
   
   
   
   
   I like EU4. It has a lot of depth and strategy, (which I'm still miles away from mastering) and the AI is good and not cheating too obviously.  Whenever you sit down to play it's always engaging and you get to make interesting choices and plans.
   
   It's also the worst "one more turn" game I've ever played. I've sat down to play an hour or two and stood up four or five hours later feeling a bit like you've lost control of your life. I found especially I'd only quit after the game punished me badly for making poor choices (see Polish Commonwealth) and so I'd leave with a mixed, my life sucks because I've played one damn game all day, and my life sucks because I just killed 100,000 troops and had to give up six provinces.
   
   EU4 also gets into your brain. I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about plans for the Ottomans and how I was going to expand, or fix a treaty, or get those damned provinces back from the Polish. This tended to make it a little to easy to fire up EU4 and start up again. I had to make a pretty conscious effort to put it away so I could a) actually get real work done and b) play anything else (like Final Fantasy).
   


2. Final Fantasy VI (or 3) (for Super Nintendo) - Since I broke up with Ogre Battle (which I'll write a post about some day), I still feel like the dark days of winter are the days when you're supposed to play fantasy RPGs and Final Fantasy VI is a great game in that category.
   
   
   
   
   I was playing on my original SNES. Which gave me the full Woolseyized text, son of a submariner and all. I tend to think of the SNES version FF3 (with the arabic numeral) verses Final Fantasy VI (with the roman numerals), which applies to the later versions of the game. That may be a crazy thing to do, but it's what's been going on in my head for a while.
   
   Generally I've been having fun. The story feels a little strangled by the translation, but generally is good and once you get going is fun. Combat is good, but random encounters are evil (especially when you're trying to tell a story). There are slightly too many characters for the game to manage and not quite enough reason to trot them out in any quest. There's a button you can push that makes a ninja drop from the ceiling and you can fight him. (Also why are all ninjas undead?)


3. Dishonored - I really like Dishonored (which should really have a u in it somewhere). It's fun and it's easy to slip back into, even if I haven't played in a while. Beyond that I'm feeling excited that we'll get to see Dishonored 2 some time this year (hopefully) and I also want to try my hand at a Let's Play and this seems like a good game to start on.
   
   
   


4. Mini Metro - Holy crap! This little strategy game where you manage a metro system on a metro map is awesome. I played it a little bit when they had the web-only beta version running a while ago. Then it came out for real. I lost a day (oops) to the web-only version on my laptop then looked it up again when I got home and realized that the Steam version was on for $10 (CAD). So since then I've played a lot. I seem to max out most maps at around a 1000 passengers, but I like the variety of maps they have and the daily challenges. The only problem I seem to have (other than the lost day) is that it seems like you can't do the daily challenges all at once.
   
   
   


5. Super Mario Maker - I don't usually set out to play Super Mario Maker that often, it tends to be a game where I see the box sitting by the TV and think, "Oh, I should play an hour." I really like designing levels as an exercise in thinking about game design and I also try to spend at least a little time playing other peoples levels since I think the game is a little low on players vs creators. Since I'm thinking about it, I do have two levels that I made recently that I'm kinda proud of, New Buzzy Lair and Always a Way. You can also see my profile page.






6. Hearthstone - I don't play Hearthstone everyday, but I do like to play at lunch when I can and then occasionally while I'm watching the hockey game or as a way to wind down before bed. I'm not good and I'm lacking a lot of the high end cards to really get me moving (one day, Dr. Boom, one day), but I still have fun. It may not be exactly fair, but I do enjoy that feeling of watching your opponent make a mistake and leave you the opening to get your board control up and stable so you take the game over.
   
   
   

If you're interested, here are my total times in January for every game I played:

The units are in hours, I'm still a little baffled about pivot tables.

and I have a chart of which games I played on which days:

Sorry this looks janky, I'm definetly still trying to figure out how to embed google docs.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 120)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get awesome, get science and get musical.

• First, the vlogbrothers host the Project For Awesome every year and this video is (a few of) the highlights from 2013.
• Next, Hank enjoys some holidays and his favourite, nothing to do day, thing, answering science questions. #amI1percentnacho
• Finally, Ben Chan, as a guy in four boxes, plays a parody on the themes from Final Fantasy.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 119)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we reverse engineer our own typesetter and answer real questions about real vlogbrothers.

• First, we have two videos from Computerphile looking at "The Great 202 Jailbreak". This is a good look at the spirit of inventiveness that makes computer science interesting and at how complex a thing that seems simple, like printing*, can be.
• Then to round out the volume Hank Green did Question Tuesday with his parents. Answering the most important question, how was John Green as a child.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 118)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, it's time to feel the music.

• First, it takes fourteen instances of Mr. Smooth McGroove to cover "The One Who Bares Fangs at God" from Xenogears.
• Next in the further vein of video game music to make the hair stand up on your (well, my) arms, Caitlin and Vaughan cover Time's Scar from Chrono Cross
• Finally, Slamacow produced a video to Laura Shigihara's "From the Ground Up" which tells a beautiful story about love, life and rebirth.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 117)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we get out our sciencing tools and get our feet wet.

• From Sixty Symbols we see what happens when physicists decide they want to do something interesting on a Friday afternoon. The science is interesting, and the visuals are awesome, though I have to confess to some jealousy since if I go outside on a Friday afternoon I'm probably goofing off.

January 2016 Project Update

Somehow, it's been six months since my last project update. I've been pretty busy for the last six months, but mostly on things for the PhD and teaching. Around here I haven't managed to get much done.

As far as the "actual job" goes. I'm hoping to finish the PhD this year, although it'll be December if I do get it all done this year. I'm getting closer though and I've reach the point where I really just want to get it done and and get on to anything else.

The teaching has also been interesting, since my last update I've been working primarily on new ways to teach new computer scientist the basic tools that we expect them to be able to use (like text editors and the Unix command line). That has been a lot of work but I think may also lead to some things that I'd like to do in the future. You may even see me talk about it more here in the next little while.

As far as getting projects done, I haven't. I've managed to do a little work but really haven't managed to put anything to bed. Finishing things is definitely not my strength.

Granted finishing things is never easy:

The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.^[1]

— Tom Cargill, Bell Labs

(Stolen ... borrowed ... excerpted ... from Wikipedia)

I think I also sometimes distract myself by giving myself too many options about what to work on *looks at the two page todo list*.

I'm going to try for the next little bit to focus when I'm working on my project stuff. I'm also going to try to make sure that I put the bulk of my time into getting the PhD done.

To manage that I'm going to try to have one active project at a time (well two, but hold onto that thought). For now, I'm going to focus on finishing the sketch fiction first. I'll get to the perler projects (coasters and sprites) when I have a little time, but for now we can call them "on hiatus".

Also I have absolutely no idea what those other two and a half projects were going to be. I should really consider writing things down. On that note, if I come up with more brain crack*, then you might see a project post for a project that I'm not really going to start on.

The "other" project is going to be "blog as blog project". For the last year I really tried to get two posts out a week. Over all I haven't done too badly, but I feel a bit like I use the blog as an excuse to not work on other things (like my PhD and other projects). I'm going to scale back to only one "YouTube Favourites" a week (on Friday). This was always technically the plan with the assumption that I'd be filling Tuesday and the other days with other posts, but that hasn't been the case and that's okay.

I'm going to set the deadline for the sketch fiction for February 9th, 2016 and in the mean time you'll have a fresh batch of favourite videos on Friday.

* he says if as though he didn't have another page in the todo list of "long term" projects in the book with the todo list.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 116)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we swear, we share and we care (honestly that was the best I could come up with using the thesaurus... sorry).

• First, Michael from Vsauce has some bad words to say to us.
• Next, John Green talks about how the Vlogbrothers and Nerdfighteria handles the phrase Don't Forget to Be Awesome, how trade marks work and how not forgetting to be awesome doesn't become less awesome when it gets shared.
• Finally, Yungtown needed to put some words about his crushing crush into song. Which he did along with the very awesome Satchell Drakes.