Gno Schitt

While working on changes to the About page at lunch today, I was reminiscing about pictures and links from around the time GnoSchitt got off the ground.

I thought this image from was from a previous post of ours but I couldn't locate it in the history.  Thankfully, the internet is made of tiny faeries and magical creatures that can locate anything by careful keyword searching...

(she is so proud in this picture, and he has NO fucking idea)

Ok, to start, I started playing 360 on a friends box. I had an account and played all his games. Hell, I even bought a few just so I could play them on his machine. Then the dreaded day arrived. University ended and I had money that I could actually spend. Crazy, I know.

So a 360 elite with headset and 250 G hard drive came my way. A memory unit purchased to transfer my existing account from my friends box to my shiny new one. And in all my blessed new-found glory I plugged in to play Gears. I am now ready to rehash all that.

Oh Gears, how you've kept me through the years. Yes it rhymes. Deal with it. Screw poetry it's time to chainsaw things. Kyro's new to the Xbox exclusives and I plan on walking him through the magic of Dom and Marcus. Woe be to everyone not us.

I know this is old news, but I had never seen the video for it until tonight.  It's pretty politically charged, I'm a big fan of the way it ends.

...At least according to some totally awesome scientists, who state, "that countless studies show that hallucinogens promote healthy neural activity in the brain."
Hell yes! I wasn't tripping, I was finding oneness and promoting my mental well-being!
Here's a chart, a real official-looking one!This shows my, er, subjects states of mind when on LSD or Ketamine. Turns out that Vitamin K is good for depression, and Acid is very helpful treating OCD.

I am so proud of myself right now for the responsible decisions I made in my younger days!

Before the Lord scoops this one ;)

You will, I hope, pardon my bad pun. I couldn't help myself, it was too damn easy.
But yes, as noted in the title, and the link, the first ever 3D IMAX porn is being filmed. As amusing as I find the idea, it also terrifies me a little bit. I watched My Bloody Valentine 3D in theaters a while back and there is a scene with a full frontal naked girl running around for about ten minutes that enthralled me with bouncy 3D boobies. But that was one brief scene.

Now imagine IMAX, in 3D, and an entire porn movie. "Aghh, there's a 60 foot penis swinging at my head!" or "Oh, she's going cowgirl, my favourite!" then 2 minutes later, "Oh my god she needs to stop, I've got whiplash from watching those ginormous bouncing boobies." Or, just try and imagine a tsunami of semen raging forth in glorious 3D onto you. You'd be crawling over your seat in desperation, looking for a flotation device (aside from the ginormous boobs). And let's not forget the damage to self-esteem everywhere from seeing cocks the size of a bus and tits big enough to open a bed and breakfast in.

Shudder...

My look back at older games yesterday got me in a nostalgic mood and I happened to remember the first "board game" I ever played (by choice that is, snakes and ladders doesn't count). There were times that I wondered where all the gaming love began. Now I know it all stemmed from Mastermind.

As Seanbaby once said, "Romance is like playing Mastermind except the girl never tells you which pegs you got right."

Oh, and sidenote, "Everything unrelated to Elephants is irrelephant" is admittedly the coolest thing I've seen on a t-shirt in a long time. Too bad it will get overused and old while I blissfully ignore the fact that the joke is related incestuously to a pun. Still have to make my Yeshua t-shirt....

100 Percenting as you read this.

There are a few games from way back that still hold a special place for me. Usually they end up being the first game of any particular genre that I liked. Red Alert for RTS, Jedi Knight for FPS or FF7 for RPG. Strangely though, I find that I can remember every point and click adventure game I've ever played. When I was playing games as a youngster, our family had dial up internet and because of that, I hadn't explored the possibilities of the internet. So, when I played a game and I got stuck, either my friend knew how to do it or I stayed stuck. That made it all the sweeter when the light bulb finally came on. And for me, that moment has always been way more rewarding in point and clicks.

My first P&C experience wasn't even technically a point and click adventure game. At least not 100% because you don't click with an NES controller. The game was Shadowgate and it took me and my entire family many a session to take it down. I think these games appeal to my personality because I enjoy a riddle and I don't mind thinking about it for a few hours before getting a hint. The accomplishment comes from persevering until success and even more so from bending your mind into patterns that transcend your normal ways of processing.



Anyways, that's my beginnings and the reasoning but I guess I'm kind of just randomly throwing down here. The point of all this is that, very recently, I've been amazed by the number of games coming out that either are true P&C adventures or that emulate the key concepts. Those being simplicity of technology and, to offset that, extreme depth of thought and difficulty requirements. Monkey Island comes to mind for an older version of this particular aspect of games that I enjoy. Whether you played the original or not, I recommend the remake even if you're only remotely interested. If you've never played it, you'll only miss out on a few inside jokes that don't matter much anyways, and now that I think about it, the remake has a setting where you can revert the game back to it's original version and play through that way too. If you're not into that, however, and you're looking for a completely new mind bender, I recommend Machinarium. I'm not going to take anything away from this one by describing it. Hit the site and play the demo.

Machinarium

The world is flooded with shooters and sandbox games where you have to be a complete idiot (or make a fairly serious misstep) to even come close to dying. One of the best parts of video games are that you can die without consequence. Sometimes, it's just great fun to do so in very imaginative ways. So why not promote that. Limbo for XBLA is a recent game that captures that aspect pretty solidly and though I've yet to play it, I know I will be shortly. Viscous. Go watch a trailer or if you've got Xbox Live go get the demo. (Escapist Magazine's review of Limbo)

Limbo

Oh, and did I mention how dark the gameplay is in Limbo. I love games that creep me out. And as a side note, the music in Machinarium is excellent.

Braid, of course, gets honorable mention for being difficult and mind altering but it didn't have enough of the aspects of the old school games that I really relish. Also, it had time reverse and bullet time which is starting to get on my nerves as a game gimmick. Great concepts and usage in Max Payne and Sands of Time but everything after that has been meh to me. We'll see if Singularity's new take on it can work...

In closing, if there are any games that fit this concept that you've seen or played recently, let me know. I'm always looking out for the next challenge.

100 Percenting as you read this.

This "not an FPS" uses FPS controls and is currently being distributed via STEAM for free. I think it's only a Windows game currently, which is kinda too bad, but it's totally worth a look. I've got it installed if anybody wants to try to set up a game session.

Q. O.K., let’s talk about “Batman & Robin.” You were successful with “Batman Forever,” but that sequel derailed the whole franchise until Christopher Nolan came in to revive it.

A. I’d had such a string of successes. You kind of think, like, wow, I’m hitting these balls out of the park every time. And I felt I was making quality films, and so I think I didn’t have passion to do “Batman & Robin.” I think I was paid a lot of money, and we were supporting the Warner Brothers stores, and so I felt like my job was very corporate for the first time in my life. I think it still made a fortune and stuff sold and all of that, and I blame no one else but myself — a Joel Schumacher film. The buck stops right here.


I dunno if I can ever forgive him for putting nipples on Batman and calling it "children's entertainment".

Can you?

I am looking for feedback on the four images I'm thinking of using as the new GS theme header graphic (sans logo). Please take a look at all four of them and comment on which one you would like to see on the blog and why if you have a minute.

Yeah, those motivational posters frequently piss me off to! Check out this site for some healthy demotiviation, as shown below...

... we are living in the FUTURE

I would think that this could work for most of us.

I was strangely entertained by this simple little browser game.

...but really only if there are dogs at hand

PVP can be really hit or (mostly) miss. This was a palpable hit.
Sometimes too much knowledge can really beat the kid out of you.

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/77480?promo=search

For those who don't live outside of town....

Hit the link to hear the musical story of Conan.


You can "hear the lamentation of their women" sung.
No really, it's funny!

It's E3 time again and all the gaming media are crammed into a crowded convention center to see the next wave of digital money-grabs.

Announced this week was Rock Band 3, available for a premium spot under your Christmas tree later this year. They completely redesigned the game from the ground up and it looks pretty swanky. Vocal harmonies are integrated (as experienced on the Beatles Rock Band), a keyboard is introduced, all the previous songs from earlier Rock Bands can be imported, a Pro Mode is introduced, and there's a new (not cheap) guitar that can read your hand position to show you on the screen and act as a real guitar! Reality and games blur together by one more degree!

Hit the link for a video of the guitar in game and real life action and be wowed. Soon we will all be Rock and Roll legends in our own living rooms!

After almost twenty years Devo returns as geriatric, angrier, nerdier, sarcastic nihilists.

I was never a fan of Devo, didn't get much enjoyment out of their music. In fact the only person I personally know who ever listened to Devo for pleasure is Kyro, and his tastes tend to be very, uh, unique to him. (Said with the utmost love and respect for my old friend!)

The link sends you to an article talking about Devo's new album and a wee bit of their history that actually put the band in a much better light for me. I didn't really appreciate just how counter-culture these guys were and still are. They hate commercialism, so much so that they write pop songs dripping with sarcasm to sell to the dumb-ass masses who eat it up, especially in our current climate of Geek-chic.

There are a couple of videos at the link as well, from a live performance on Jimmy Kimmel. I don't like the first single, Fresh, but I do dig the other song, What We Do, I can relate to it.

So read the article, listen to the tunes, get a chuckle, think a bit, grudgingly admit that Kyro is not completely mental (not completely...), and whip it, whip it real good!

Total Time: 19:43:54

Thanks to everybody who made it out this Saturday - it meant a shit ton to me to see that many friendly faces out for one last schbang! Major props to Josh, Kim and Kara (it was their first - and likely last - all electronic/DJ show). ScrewLoose, SteveO and the ultra old schoolers, wow... just wow...

You guys are the best.
(There will be some video and sound coming - links for those who ask for it)

This message brought to you by the friendly Illuminati
Servant of Cthulhu
You have a +4 bonus on any attempt to destroy, even with Disasters and Assassinations. Draw a Plot Card whenever you destroy a group!

Dah Dum Dum Dah Dum Dum...

Check out the link.

Vinyl is dead.

Oh, BTW, my last show DJ'ing (probably ever) is the last weekend of this month. That's right, on May 29th I'll be playing as Psience DJs for what is sure to be the last time EVER.

Call/Email for details if you'd like to go out with a bang - I know I plan to!

Nothing like bizarre Monday morning news. Microsoft's current campaign for getting people to upgrade supposedly includes sending 9 year old milk to your friends

This is such an amazing story.
The short version is that a boy in Seattle is suffering from liver cancer and the Make A Wish Foundation made his wish, to be a superhero, come true in one remarkable day.
I'm just dumbstruck at the lengths to which they went to make this boy's dream come true before he died.
Read the story and have some faith in humanity restored.

So, I use rar, zip and 7z across my PC and Mac, and recently after password protecting an archive, copying it to another machine and unarchiving it, I discovered that I had somehow set the "Locked" attribute. When unpacking files on my Mac I was suddenly having a couple of problems... I couldn't delete the files or manipulate them in a editor (Logic in this case) without getting various 'file is locked' / 'insufficient privileges' messages. Annoying.

We're not talking about 2 or 3 files here, but a directory full of samples and loops that I use for music production. The thought of manually going through each files "info" dialog and unchecking a box made me throw up a little in my mouth - there is ALWAYS a way to script or automate this kind of shit.

After a little digging I was able to uncover this little gem:

sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/

What the hell does that mean you ask? I know it looks like it has the word douche in there, at least, that's all I could see initially, but I'll explain.

sudo will run the chflags command as root (this prompts you for your root password, so I hope you know it).

-R will cause the command to affect every file in the directory and all of its subdirectories. Make sure it's uppercase, as it's case-sensitive.

If uchg is the flag for "Locked" in the info dialog, then nouchg is the syntax for removing the uchg flag.

The tilde (~) indicates that you want to run this command against your home directory. If you have only a subdir inside your home directory you can path it out (I used ~/Music/Resources/SampleBank23/ and it worked a treat).

We live in a world of $200 24" HD monitors now.
The world is coming to an end.

The title is mis-leading... intentionally.... oh ok, just fuck off if you don't think it's that clever.

Here is the stuff I wanted to share

Keep your timezones straight.

This is what I wish I had from DriveThruRPG (mostly 4e stuff)

WotC is releasing Dark Sun this fall, and I'm really excited. Rich Baker talks a bit about game design and world building which segues into the next topic nicely.

Currently working on a fairly unusual 4e setting of my own.
Even seen Kaena The Prophecy? It takes a sliver of it's soul from that story, but with a much more expanded scope and some high fantasy flavor.

Snow on Monday - seriously? At least I can squeeze in a D&D session Sunday with some good fortune. Everybody has these crazy professional schedules, or marriages, or animals, and the hardest part about getting together is the getting older. I never understood when it happened to my parents, but I'm starting to get it now.

FUCK.

On the upside, as I mentioned I'm laying the ground work for writing my own campaign now instead of re-writing someone else's (I expect my Iron Kingdoms game to wrap up by June). I guess I just needed to test myself a bit and see how a revision went before I took the plunge on my own. I'm looking for contributors (story, concept, etc...) so let me know if you're interested in hearing the precis.

Much love...

Kyro/Spacemandj

So I am sure that there is no debate amongst those of us who read this blog that we all agree that Games are Art. Roger Ebert on the other hand decided to post on his blog on the Chicago Sun-Times that games are not art (found here). I have not read the whole article because I don't need to read all of it. He doesn't know what he is talking about. There have been lots of people chiming in all over the internet over this and by far the funniest response, and almost lack there of was from Gabe at penny-arcade. Here is a snipit of his answer "I say games are art and last time I checked, I was beating Michelle Obama, Oprah and Taylor swift in Time's 100 most influential people list." (That list is here)

You are the walrus.

You are he as I am he as I am he and we are all together. I've been a naughty boy, I've let my hair grow long. I am sitting in an English garden, eating eggs and waiting for the sun to come. I am watching them snort like pigs in the sky reading Edgar Alan Poe. Koo koo kachoo.

the Library of Congress announced today that they'll be archiving every public tweet made since 2006.

HA HA!!!

I love to think what people will be thinking in 100, 200, 500 years from now when they read the stuff that has bee said on twitter.

Hit the link to get the full story.

You are Red/Blue!
Take The Magic Dual Colour Test - Beta today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

If this is what all books can look like on the iPad, then I am still thinking that I will get a 2nd Gen one. I was always interested to see that the developers do with it, and I am liking what I see.

I am Blue/Green
Take The Magic Dual Colour Test - Beta today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

I am White/Green
Take The Magic Dual Colour Test - Beta today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

This guy completely destroys "The Phantom Menace", if you like that film even a little, do NOT watch this guys total annihilation of it.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1AWVLnl48&feature=related

Part 3:
... you can figure out how to find the rest of them....

Cory Doctorow has a few reasons why you shouldn't buy one. Personally, I think I'd like to own one. How 'bout you?

HA HA

This is a mock Google ad that is Star Wars themed.

Such a simple idea. If it would work it could do a lot...