Gaming art boundaries

Here is a promo space for an upcoming game. It probably full of violence and flashbang but this is the part I like best, spaces.

Can you imagine being able to walk around the farm, find a stump, a bench, or lay a blanket and then read a book?

an approaching storm as a metaphor for a game release

Car Free Village in Germany (and Hayward?)

The NYT has an article about a housing development in Germany where they seriously restrict cars. To me this sounds almost idyllic, it'd be quieter, smog and designed to be more bicycle friendly.

Europe Imagines Its Suburbs With The Car

Judging by the article there is a similar type of community being planned (pending funds and further planning) in Hayward called Quarry Village.

Link.



I think it sounds pretty interesting. They have a starting price of $250,000 for a studio.

Craigslist Ad for Person that Helped Broken Headed Guy Outside Our Door

It doesn't provide too many clues. Who was "invited by the author of this post" to clean up after the ambulence arrived. "Faceplanted"? Does that mean it was a skateboard accident?

Link

And A Child Shall Lead Them

From Boing of course

Jay McCarroll Documentary

As of yet undistributed.

Indoor Forest in LA Gallery

Oh how I'd adore an indoor forest!

They are having pancakes and showing bear films this Sunday at the Machine Project. I don't think I'll be able to make it. Link.

They have a great Flickr set for the construction here.

Tetris lessons offered at affordable rates (Vancouver)

Only $30 here!

I find it somewhat erotic what is going between the purple block and the blue block. You may have to click on the image to see the whole thing.

Passive Agressive Anger Machine

You insert a coin and then a peice of china moves forward and smashes.

Link

Spreadsheet short story

Link

Signed Mark Ryden Prints for sale.

"The Ecstacy of St Cecilia"
giclee print
#77/200
professionally matted and framed
signed by Ryden in pencil below image
image 15.5" x 15"
frame 22" x 25"
$ 2500.







"Jajo, Patron Saint of Clowns"
giclee print
professionally framed and matted
signed by Ryden in pencil below image
#56/200
image 12" x 15"
frame 20" x 24"
$1500.




Link

Website to Sell Storage Space for $$ (We could be sitting on a gold mine!).

Link.

First book written in ALL CAPS?

The editors review is in ALL CAPS, and some of the funny Amazon reviewers use ALL CAPS, so PERHAPS.

LINK!@!!.

Video Game Movie

This movie seems to express what I like about video games the most, more than playing them for me, the pleasure is simply moving freely about in an "environment". It is like the act of playing golf on a beautiful course. Having a game to play, like golf, simply keeps you in the garden so that you end up enjoying it more.

I would have editted out the ending though. The main love story part is sufficient for me.


World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Art of Video Games in Valle d'Aosta

Ahh...Aosta.

Link.

The Hipster PDA Key Chain

Loverly! Link.

In fact they have a whole mess of links on the subject. Links.

Pizzeria Delfina Makes T-shirts Out of Their Worst Yelp Reviews.

It was on BoingBoingBoingBoingBoing. Link.

Documentary about Working Class Art Collectors

Dorothy and Hebert Vogel are unlikely art patrons. Her librarian paycheck paid the bills and his postal worker paycheck bought art. In 40 years they collected 4000 works of art.

Link.

60,000km from Doom Last Night

We were 60,000 km from an asteroid last night. Link.

Is Blockbuster Next on the Bancruptcy Block?

Allegedly a rumor of it has it's stock tanking. Meanwhile Netflix is up 5.85%.

Link

In the Eye of the Beholder?

Tropicana Ditches Design

It was pretty ugly. These are the same people that did the new Pepsi symbol and their manifesto for this new look, "Breathtaking" has been circulating, to much laughter, on the web.

Link to the Tropicana article.

You should see the full document linked on this linked page. It is pretty amazingly ostentatious.Link to "Breathtaking".

It reminds me of this funny BoingBoing about some "science bullshitting" by an electronic encryption company. Link.

Twelfth Night or What the...?

If you are interested a link to my paper is here.

What to Expect When You Are Expecting a Les Savy Fav Show

It sounds like it could be a pretty fun show. Link.

The Web Will Kill Us All, Unless We Take a Walk in the Park

I'm going to start talking to my relatives more.

Link.

Something Terrifying is Going to Happen to San Francisco on 3/20

Link

Second-person in fiction compels you

You sit down at your computer. You blog, "Research published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that, while frequently annoying, the use of the second person in fiction compels readers to form more vivid identification in literature." You save the blog post.

From Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing.

Cave House in MO, on Ebay for $300K

Link.

When the Economy Gets Tough the Tough Play Video Games

The argument that I have heard twice now, for betting on the video game industry in the coming super-recession, is that video games provide more hours of entertainment per dollar than any other form of entertainment. I think, for men, games provide a virtual gender performance arena that can replace the real marketplace's disappointing lack of opportunities. Also it simply provides escape. Immediately after the Great Depression movie theatre attendance was cut by one third. However after that it maintained its attendance records of 60-70 million per year through the Great Depression, as unemployment climbed all the way up to 25%.

Here is an article a recent newswire about Gamestop (GME) which was up 11%. Link.

Perhaps it might be early to place bets on game studios. I'm going to keep looking at this market segment and I'll update what I learn.

Men see women in bikinis as objects

It's a shocking revelation from the science world, but it appears to be true. Seeing a scantily clad female causes the part of men's brains that deals with handling tools, and goal orientation, to illuminate. I would be willing to guess that the same thing happens when men view women's naked bodies as well. Or when viewing women having sex.

I think most men learn pretty quickly, unless they had gotten a lot of sexual fulfillment from an early age without trying, that they need to be able to change spheres depending on the context even with the same woman. The "tool" drive may serve them to take some risks and to be an aggressive lover, but seduction, mutual fulfillment, and respect will finish the job.

Link

How to Get the Most Out of the Stimulus Plan

$8000 dollars towards the down payment on new home owners.

Link

Picture of the (Random Interval)

Free Hand Circle Drawing Master

Farming is so lonely!

The Future of Books

I believe it is a Book Arts project.

Link.

Boinged again

Cake company bakes a cake with image of flash drive instead of image saved ON the flash drive.
Link

Gay Hanky Code

I don't know how it's done in the internet age but I think at least this was once a true practice pre-internet. The list here is exhaustively comprehensive (and somewhat satirical). I'm curious to learn more about this practice and how it standardized.

Shoe-Thrower Monument Removed

Assisted by kids at the Tikrit Orphanage, sculptor Laith al-Amiri on Tuesday erected a huge brown replica of one of the shoes hurled at Bush last month by journalist Muntadhir al-Zaidi during a press conference in Baghdad.

But officials from Salaheddin province told CNN that the monument was removed after a request from the central government, which has charges pending against al-Zaidi -- now in an Iraqi jail.

Link

Math Clock

Broke by Boing again. Etsy Link.

4 Hours of Play in 2 Minutes

Your Brain on Fiction

Boing is too good at breaking interesting stories. Damn them! In this article which quotes "The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Mental Health Program" the journal, Psychological Science will publish a report that says that reader mirror the actions of characters from the same brain placed than if they were performing the actions.

To me this would provide clues about entering another person's brain via fictional narratives. If an experience is common it will be accessible to a reader that tries to construct it. Or if an experience is expressed through the language of common experience then even though it may be exotic it can also be digestible. If I wrote about walking on the moon and used metaphors of walking in a blow-up castle, or walking underwater, then it may be easier to convey than if I tried explain that the ground on the moon is hard but I'm not as heavy and there is very little air resistance.




Link to the article.

Jackson Pollock's Birthday Today

Amazing!

Cemetaries in Parking Lots

Feast your eyes on the oddities of progress and compromise. This one is the grave of Mary Ellis. According to legend:

Mary, who came to New Brunswick in the 1790s to live with her sister, fell in love with a sea captain who promised to marry her once he returned from his next voyage. The captain then left Mary his horse and sailed off down the Raritan
River. Every day, Mary rode her lover's steed down to the river, hoping to meet him at the water's edge. For years, she gazed at the river, waiting for his return. In 1813, she purchased a plot of land overlooking the river, where she maintained her vigil until her death in 1826. And there she was buried, forever waiting for her captain.
I admit this was a BoingBoing tip. The source is here.

Vigilant Justice for Madoff

Trust fund kids toilet papered-madoff's house with their parent's permission and then called the paper to gloat. They didn't do a very good job though.

Link

Housing sales are up but...

One half of all sales are from foreclosures. Link

Picture of the (Random Interval)

Cupcakes of Catan

Games are entering productive life

I found two examples within the span of a week of games that are being used to aid in productivity. I have imagined sims as a learning curve interface system, perhaps for teaching a new entreprenuer to budget better for example, or a new employee how to operate within a new industry.

Ford's dashboard

In the first case, one game is embedded in Ford's new prototype dashboard for hybrids and helps a driver focus on driving in a fuel efficient manner. If you break and accelerate suddenly alot you burn more fuel so an indicator on the far right will display a withering vine to punish you for it. If you do a good job driving in a fuel efficient manner then you are rewarded with a thriving vine with increasing leaves.



Blog link

Kansas Transportation Tycoon

The other is a calculator created by the Kansas Department of Transportation called T-LINK. It is an online sim for budgeting and building and maintaining roads in Kansas but it goes further.

After completing their program, an option to “Submit your program” is available. KDOT will develop statewide and regional averages based on the submittals. These “average theoretical programs” will eventually be made available on the website and presented to the T-LINK Task force for consideration.

T-LINK

The T-LINK calculator (the game)

Serious Games

I think these are both what are referred to as serious games. I don't know of any other uses of serious games except the wargames of the military (both the computer and boot camp games), so this is interesting to me from games and informatics perspectives. I haven't realized until now how much.

Picture of the (Random Interval)

I was moved and it makes me feel like a sap

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Top Ten Online Tools to Connect with the Obama Administration

It's pretty exciting to see so many ways to "communicate". I think the nations first CTO is an interesting discussion, and I have not looked at USA Service but I hear the clarion call.

Link

Bush Street is now Obama Street

Allegedly someone changed all of the signs for Bush Street from Presidio to Battery.


View Larger Map


So says BoingBoing.

Shift Happens

Here's a video that gives a little imagination boost. It gets my informatics blood going, but even more it make me think about our brief taxonomy chat at Casa Ramos.

I should self-educate myself more.

Shift Happens

Definition of a "salvo"

1 a: a simultaneous discharge of two or more guns in military action or as a salute b: the release all at one time of a rack of bombs or rockets (as from an airplane) c: a series of shots by an artillery battery with each gun firing one round in turn after a prescribed interval d: the bombs or projectiles released in a salvo
2: something suggestive of a salvo: as a: a sudden burst (a salvo of cheers) b: a spirited attack (the first salvo of a political campaign)

Music video

This is an artfully done music video for an artists named Leeni. It confuses video games and theatre as it tells a story of a mole that wants to go on a trip to the surface. I thought it was a rich peice of work.



Enjoy!

Add me to Google Gadgets

Just add this url...

http://heyclare.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I tried to do it with your blog but I thing you have to go into Settings/Site Feed/ and apply at least once.

Are you still looking for a job?

This one pays $100,000 for 6 months to lounge around on a tropical island and blog about it.

Link

Hella Flight 1549 Stories

This NYT article has loads of personal experiences. I don't know if you have read one of these type stories yet.

I like this one the best

Dick Richardson, 57, a frequent flier, had, upon takeoff, done his ritual count of the rows between his seat and the nearest exit (eight) before closing his eyes to try to go to sleep. On impact, he moved his BlackBerry from his belt clip to the inside pocket of his blue-gray tweed blazer.

Link