My trip out to Portland was a somewhat spur of the moment decision. My mom was supposed to go and visit my sister for her birthday, but instead, she ended up having surgery and a lengthy recovery afterwards. (Surgery went fine and she's doing well.) This started me thinking that maybe it would be a good time for me to go to Portland. I didn't end up making it in time for Donna's birthday, as that was only days away when my mom had to cancel her plans. But before very long, I had made the necessary arrangements for a week's vacation. I would be going by myself; Andrew had kindly agreed to stay home and care for the animals, which turned out to be an even bigger deal than I initially thought. Shortly before I left, the website I had booked my flight with sent me a link to a list of songs and movies that would help me "get in a Portland state of mind". I never did get around to looking at that list, thought I should see if I still have it, as I can't think of any films or songs that prominently feature Portland.
My trip started out a little rocky, but went smoothly after that. I had called for a taxi the night before since Andrew was sick and I didn't want to make him drive me to the bus station at such an early hour. The time I had scheduled pick-up for came and went with no taxi in sight. As it was getting late, Andrew drove me out to the airport shuttle. I called the taxi company on my cell (earlier calls only got a machine) and learned that they had assumed I was in the town that they're based in, despite the fact that I had told them I wasn't. Scratch one cab company. The bus got me to the airport in plenty of time and my two flights went smoothly. After I brief mix-up where I ended up in the drop-off area instead of the pick-up, I found Donna and her Andrew and was on my way to their place.
First on the agenda was, of course, meeting the kitties. They were a little wary of me at first, but that didn't last too long. Phoebe is a little shy, generally well behaved, and vocal. Owen is a little mischievious, but he's also a total cuddle kitten. He'll come up to you and purr, whether you pat him or ignore him. They're both very playful and, not surprisingly, cute.
I was pretty beat when we got to the apartment, having read on the plane instead of sleeping. Donna gave me an early birthday present: the DVD of "Firefly". I was too tired to watch it that night, but we got about halfway through the episodes before I left. I fell asleep before anyone could even turn the couch into a bed.
We spent the week alternating between touristy stuff and hanging out at home. We checked out the Portland Museum of Art, which has a particularly nice collection of Native American art from around the country. They were also showing a collection of John Singer Sargeant's paintings of children. It was interesting, showing a nice variety of gift portraits for friends and patrons and more artsy works. They tried to include some biographical info about each of the sitters, which was neat. But the endings were pretty much "He was killed in WWI", "He was killed in WWI", "He never married and shot himself at age 40." (I stopped reading them after the last one.) Later in the week, we went to the Oregon Zoo and did a little sketching. Towards the end of the week, we saw the Chinese garden and Powell's, the ginormous book store. (I picked up some gifts for Andrew and Nancy Cartwight's autobiography to read on the plane ride home. Time at the apartment was spent watching "Firefly", playing video games (with focus on World of Warcraft), watching a little TV, and chatting.
Of course, we also paid a visit to Les and Jon, meeting at the local comic shop. We had a nice dinner with some very tasty pesto mac and cheese. I also got to meet Donna's Andrew's parents and have more mac and cheese (at a different restaurant). By the way, Jon, Andrew seemed into the idea of having a "hockey buddy", so give him a call whenever an interesting game is on.
The one real downside came near the end of my trip. Andrew called and said that Blitz wasn't eating. This persisted the next day, so he took her to the vet. It turned out that our bunny was blocked internally. Blitz is not the most cooperative bunny, so Andrew had a pretty tough time getting her medicine into her, in addition to being worried about her health. I felt really bad that this was happening while I wasn't there to help. Fortunately, Blitz has recovered nicely and has regained her appetite, thanks in large part to Andrew.
Portland is a nice city. In my limited experience, it's not too overwhelming, but there's still a lot to do. It was great to see my sister and her boyfriend and Les and Jon, all of whom I miss. And it's always nice to travel every once in a while. I'm sure I'll be back again before too long, though next time I'll probably have Andrew with me.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Saturday, September 17, 2005
The Revolution Starts Now
Yeah, I know, I should really be doing a write-up on my trip to Portland or finishing those two unfinished entries I still have bumming around my blogspace. But before all that, I did want to do a quick follow-up to one of my earlier entries. I did say that I'd let you know if I heard anything new regarding the Revolution, Nintendo's entry for the next battle in the Console Wars. Well, we have some news. At this year's Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo revealed the much anticipated controller for the Revolution. (As usual, I'm overcautious about grabbing images, so you'll have to check out the link to IGN.)
"So," those of you who are too lazy to click the link are likely asking, "What is this industry defying new controller?" Well at first glance, it looks a lot like a rather skinny TV remote. It's vertically oriented and designed to be held in one hand. Not impressed? Well, I haven't got to the good part yet. The controller comes with a sensor which you place near your TV. This sensor is used to translate movements of the controller in your hand into movements on the screen. The sensor apparently reads not only up, down, left, right, movements, but also forward and backward as well as various twists and tilts.
So what does this mean for actual gameplay? Just imagine exploring a 3D room by simply waving your controller in the direction you want to go. Consider what it would be like to steer a plane by tilting your controller left and right. The demo shown at Tokyo Game Show included a few generally crude demo games suggesting other uses for the controller. One was a crude fishing game suggesting how the player would use the controller like a fishing pole to cast and pull in a catch. (The standard controller is reportedly rumble ready, which should add to this experience.) A slightly more polsihed demo showed how the controller could be used for aiming in a first person shooter.
It's certainly an innovative idea, not what I was guessing at all. (Though to be fair, that dumb hint about the controller having to accomodate games from all Nintendo's past systems didn't help at all.) I'm certainly interested, but I do still have some concerns. The most notably absent feature on the standard controller is an analog stick. I imagine this is designed to force both gamers and designers to use the "point and move" feature to get around 3D spaces, rather than just ignoring it for the more familiar control. Still, the lack of an analog stick out of the box may well put off some gamers. Nintedo has designed two addon peripherals for the controller, one of which is an analog controller with two trigger buttons. Dubbed "the nunchuck" (I'm pretty sure the fans came up with that), it attaches to the main controller via a short cord that plugs into the bottom of the controller. The demo suggests that in a first person shooter, for example, this would control your movements while the pointer would let you aim. The other scheduled add-on is a shell resembling a more standard controller which the remote-styled one can be plugged into. This is probably intended to allow for easier play of your games designed for the earlier systems. Please note that the picture IGN has of this is their own mock-up and not necessarily what the actual controller shell will look like.
My other big concern is on that's been voiced a lot by gamers: Is the Revolution too revolutionary? For various reasons, the GameCube was left behind on a lot of cross-console games. I'm a little worried that the Revolution may suffer the same fate, in part because its creators freely admit it's a less powerful system, and in part because it's just too different. I know virtually nothing about game programming, but I imagine configuring an exisiting game to respond to a pointer-style controller is going to be trickier than just switching the functions of a few buttons. Developers may just ignore the feature, require the anaolg add-on, or skip the Revolution altogether. If Nintendo wants this to work, they're going to have to woo some big developers and/or get a lot of first-party software out there. Hopefully in a timely manner. ("Twilight Princess" is DELAYED?!?? I'm upset, but hardly shocked.)
I haven;t really come to a conclusion about the controller yet. I feel generally positive towards it, but it's not a "i'm sold" or "No way" situation. A lot may depend on me getting my hands on one of the new controllers and seeing how it feels, how easy and intuitive it is to use, and whether the button placement works. Once again, I'll let you know when I know more.
"So," those of you who are too lazy to click the link are likely asking, "What is this industry defying new controller?" Well at first glance, it looks a lot like a rather skinny TV remote. It's vertically oriented and designed to be held in one hand. Not impressed? Well, I haven't got to the good part yet. The controller comes with a sensor which you place near your TV. This sensor is used to translate movements of the controller in your hand into movements on the screen. The sensor apparently reads not only up, down, left, right, movements, but also forward and backward as well as various twists and tilts.
So what does this mean for actual gameplay? Just imagine exploring a 3D room by simply waving your controller in the direction you want to go. Consider what it would be like to steer a plane by tilting your controller left and right. The demo shown at Tokyo Game Show included a few generally crude demo games suggesting other uses for the controller. One was a crude fishing game suggesting how the player would use the controller like a fishing pole to cast and pull in a catch. (The standard controller is reportedly rumble ready, which should add to this experience.) A slightly more polsihed demo showed how the controller could be used for aiming in a first person shooter.
It's certainly an innovative idea, not what I was guessing at all. (Though to be fair, that dumb hint about the controller having to accomodate games from all Nintendo's past systems didn't help at all.) I'm certainly interested, but I do still have some concerns. The most notably absent feature on the standard controller is an analog stick. I imagine this is designed to force both gamers and designers to use the "point and move" feature to get around 3D spaces, rather than just ignoring it for the more familiar control. Still, the lack of an analog stick out of the box may well put off some gamers. Nintedo has designed two addon peripherals for the controller, one of which is an analog controller with two trigger buttons. Dubbed "the nunchuck" (I'm pretty sure the fans came up with that), it attaches to the main controller via a short cord that plugs into the bottom of the controller. The demo suggests that in a first person shooter, for example, this would control your movements while the pointer would let you aim. The other scheduled add-on is a shell resembling a more standard controller which the remote-styled one can be plugged into. This is probably intended to allow for easier play of your games designed for the earlier systems. Please note that the picture IGN has of this is their own mock-up and not necessarily what the actual controller shell will look like.
My other big concern is on that's been voiced a lot by gamers: Is the Revolution too revolutionary? For various reasons, the GameCube was left behind on a lot of cross-console games. I'm a little worried that the Revolution may suffer the same fate, in part because its creators freely admit it's a less powerful system, and in part because it's just too different. I know virtually nothing about game programming, but I imagine configuring an exisiting game to respond to a pointer-style controller is going to be trickier than just switching the functions of a few buttons. Developers may just ignore the feature, require the anaolg add-on, or skip the Revolution altogether. If Nintendo wants this to work, they're going to have to woo some big developers and/or get a lot of first-party software out there. Hopefully in a timely manner. ("Twilight Princess" is DELAYED?!?? I'm upset, but hardly shocked.)
I haven;t really come to a conclusion about the controller yet. I feel generally positive towards it, but it's not a "i'm sold" or "No way" situation. A lot may depend on me getting my hands on one of the new controllers and seeing how it feels, how easy and intuitive it is to use, and whether the button placement works. Once again, I'll let you know when I know more.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Time Slip
Note to Self: Starting in on big long posts and then leaving them to be finished later is not conducive to regular updates.
Yeah, it's been a while and I'm sorry. I have had a number of things going on, but it's really no excuse. Right now, however, I'm at work without a whole lot to do (at least as long as the printer keeps telling me there's no black ink when my boss says she just put a new catridge in). So consequently, you get a long overdue update on just about everything.
Listen to the Toon Nerds
I think most of you know this already, but in case anyone doesn't, I now have an internet radio show. AnimationHQ's Animation Roundtable (we are trying to come up with a new name) can be found on ToonRadio Sunday nights at 8 PM Eastern and Thursday nights at 7 PM. (There's also a 4 AM airing on Wednesday, but I don't think many people tune in for that.) My co-host and I pick a couple of animation related subjects each week and discuss them. We also do a brief news segment and profiles of people in the animation industry. We've even had a guest host. I really enjoy doing the show, but it's been frustrating at times due to various problems we're still working out. Still, I think our content is good and I'd appreciate you tuning in.
More Construction
A couple of posts back, I told you about the completion of our basement bathroom. Well I'm now happy to report that our upstairs bathroom has been redone and is now virtually finished. We learned various fun things about our bathroom as it was being torn apart: there was no insulation on the wall facing the outside, the wall facing the attic stairs was nothing but insulation inside, there were several sizable holes in our floor under the tile, and our sink's poor drainage was due less to clogging and more to a lack of venting. Needless to say, the bathroom is now in much better shape and we're very happy to have a functioning toilet on the same floor as the bedroom again. Coming up next is the repaving of our very long driveway.
Movies
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was pretty awesome. Probably not everybody's cup of tea, but I was really glad to see Tim Burton doing a Tim Burton film again. It was also good to see some new twists on a story that most people already know. I cannot wait to see "Corpse Bride".
Most recently theaterwise, we saw "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray. It was pretty good, but not quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. The film has a somewhat ambiguous ending and that's kind of tricky to pull off. I'd say rent it; it's not the kind of film that you need to see in theaters.
On DVD, we got "Pom Poko". It's a Studio Ghibli film, but it's directed by the studio's other major director Isao Takahata, not Hayao Miyazaki. (This should not be counted against it; Isao Takahata is also a great director of "Grave of the Fireflies", among others.) The American DVD release of "Pom Poko" came as a surprise to some people as the film has a rather odd reputation for being about shape-shifting raccoons who attack people with their giant testicles. While this is a part of the film, it's not really a fair description. "Pom Poko" tells the story of a tribe of tanukis - not actually raccoons, but native Asian canids with a striking resemblance to raccoons. The forest home of the tanukis is being destroyed by rapid expansion of the humans cities. As their habitat shrink, the tanukis decide to fight back through the ancient art of shape-shifting. Their attacks take various forms, some of which do include using the family jewels as weapons. (The traditional Japanese depiction of a tanuki include large testicles, said to be a symbol of good fortune.) But "Pom Poko" also features beautiful naturalistic and cartoony animation. The story itself is actually a serious and sad one highlighting Japan's huge problem of urban sprawl and loss of green space. I very much enjoyed it and I'm quite happy to see it being released here. (incidentally, the dub gets around the potential crudeness of the story through use of the word "pouch". The subtitles feature no such euphemisms.)
Time Bandits
That refers to things that eat up my time, not the movie.
I've continued to play World of Warcraft while trying not to be too unreasonable about the time I put in. Donna's computer is working again and she made a new character who's closer to my level. So we play together sometimes; other times we just chat. It's a lot of fun and leveling up isn't too difficult, which was my main problem with Final Fantasy XI.
I got a Nintendo DS, essentially the new Game Boy. I bought mine on eBay at a pretty decent discount and with a few games to boot. About a week ago, Andrew picked me up a copy of Nintendogs. It's kind of like a very sophisticated virtual pet. You pick out a puppy from a variety of breeds. The touch screen and stylus allow you to interact with the puppy: patting, training, playing, feeding, and going on walks. You can train your puppy for specific contests. Make it to the top three and you earn money for supplies, redecorating, or more puppies. I currently have a Shettland Sheepdog named Blue and a chihuahua named Chalupa. I'm hoping to unlock beagle puppies soon. (There are three versions of Nintendogs. Each has different starter breeds, but every breed can be unlocked on all cartridges.)
Trip
Next week, I'll be headed out to Portland, OR to visit my sister and Les and Jon. Andrew has kindly agreed to stay and watch the animals so we don't have to go through checking the sitter's availability. This either means that I owe him or I already did something nice for him and I forgot what. Probably both. I'm looking forward to seeing people I haven't seen for a while and checking out Portland for the first time. And trying what I hear is some really exceptional mac and cheese.
That's likely all you care to read for today, so I'll stop. Oh, if you want to reply, please notice that I added word verification. It's one of those things where before your post goes through, you're shown a picture of some letters and numbers and asked to type them. One friend of mine got 13 spam replies on one entry in his blog and another got a particularly tasteless bit of spam that start off talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, literally drops of mid-sentence, and starts plugging a site about co-op advertising. So I'm being proactive.
Yeah, it's been a while and I'm sorry. I have had a number of things going on, but it's really no excuse. Right now, however, I'm at work without a whole lot to do (at least as long as the printer keeps telling me there's no black ink when my boss says she just put a new catridge in). So consequently, you get a long overdue update on just about everything.
Listen to the Toon Nerds
I think most of you know this already, but in case anyone doesn't, I now have an internet radio show. AnimationHQ's Animation Roundtable (we are trying to come up with a new name) can be found on ToonRadio Sunday nights at 8 PM Eastern and Thursday nights at 7 PM. (There's also a 4 AM airing on Wednesday, but I don't think many people tune in for that.) My co-host and I pick a couple of animation related subjects each week and discuss them. We also do a brief news segment and profiles of people in the animation industry. We've even had a guest host. I really enjoy doing the show, but it's been frustrating at times due to various problems we're still working out. Still, I think our content is good and I'd appreciate you tuning in.
More Construction
A couple of posts back, I told you about the completion of our basement bathroom. Well I'm now happy to report that our upstairs bathroom has been redone and is now virtually finished. We learned various fun things about our bathroom as it was being torn apart: there was no insulation on the wall facing the outside, the wall facing the attic stairs was nothing but insulation inside, there were several sizable holes in our floor under the tile, and our sink's poor drainage was due less to clogging and more to a lack of venting. Needless to say, the bathroom is now in much better shape and we're very happy to have a functioning toilet on the same floor as the bedroom again. Coming up next is the repaving of our very long driveway.
Movies
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was pretty awesome. Probably not everybody's cup of tea, but I was really glad to see Tim Burton doing a Tim Burton film again. It was also good to see some new twists on a story that most people already know. I cannot wait to see "Corpse Bride".
Most recently theaterwise, we saw "Broken Flowers" with Bill Murray. It was pretty good, but not quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. The film has a somewhat ambiguous ending and that's kind of tricky to pull off. I'd say rent it; it's not the kind of film that you need to see in theaters.
On DVD, we got "Pom Poko". It's a Studio Ghibli film, but it's directed by the studio's other major director Isao Takahata, not Hayao Miyazaki. (This should not be counted against it; Isao Takahata is also a great director of "Grave of the Fireflies", among others.) The American DVD release of "Pom Poko" came as a surprise to some people as the film has a rather odd reputation for being about shape-shifting raccoons who attack people with their giant testicles. While this is a part of the film, it's not really a fair description. "Pom Poko" tells the story of a tribe of tanukis - not actually raccoons, but native Asian canids with a striking resemblance to raccoons. The forest home of the tanukis is being destroyed by rapid expansion of the humans cities. As their habitat shrink, the tanukis decide to fight back through the ancient art of shape-shifting. Their attacks take various forms, some of which do include using the family jewels as weapons. (The traditional Japanese depiction of a tanuki include large testicles, said to be a symbol of good fortune.) But "Pom Poko" also features beautiful naturalistic and cartoony animation. The story itself is actually a serious and sad one highlighting Japan's huge problem of urban sprawl and loss of green space. I very much enjoyed it and I'm quite happy to see it being released here. (incidentally, the dub gets around the potential crudeness of the story through use of the word "pouch". The subtitles feature no such euphemisms.)
Time Bandits
That refers to things that eat up my time, not the movie.
I've continued to play World of Warcraft while trying not to be too unreasonable about the time I put in. Donna's computer is working again and she made a new character who's closer to my level. So we play together sometimes; other times we just chat. It's a lot of fun and leveling up isn't too difficult, which was my main problem with Final Fantasy XI.
I got a Nintendo DS, essentially the new Game Boy. I bought mine on eBay at a pretty decent discount and with a few games to boot. About a week ago, Andrew picked me up a copy of Nintendogs. It's kind of like a very sophisticated virtual pet. You pick out a puppy from a variety of breeds. The touch screen and stylus allow you to interact with the puppy: patting, training, playing, feeding, and going on walks. You can train your puppy for specific contests. Make it to the top three and you earn money for supplies, redecorating, or more puppies. I currently have a Shettland Sheepdog named Blue and a chihuahua named Chalupa. I'm hoping to unlock beagle puppies soon. (There are three versions of Nintendogs. Each has different starter breeds, but every breed can be unlocked on all cartridges.)
Trip
Next week, I'll be headed out to Portland, OR to visit my sister and Les and Jon. Andrew has kindly agreed to stay and watch the animals so we don't have to go through checking the sitter's availability. This either means that I owe him or I already did something nice for him and I forgot what. Probably both. I'm looking forward to seeing people I haven't seen for a while and checking out Portland for the first time. And trying what I hear is some really exceptional mac and cheese.
That's likely all you care to read for today, so I'll stop. Oh, if you want to reply, please notice that I added word verification. It's one of those things where before your post goes through, you're shown a picture of some letters and numbers and asked to type them. One friend of mine got 13 spam replies on one entry in his blog and another got a particularly tasteless bit of spam that start off talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, literally drops of mid-sentence, and starts plugging a site about co-op advertising. So I'm being proactive.
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