July 2010
10 posts
3 tags
Jul 29th
8-bit Art Can Be Beautiful (and Relevant) →
Canvas Cycle: True 8-bit Color Cycling with HTML5
Jul 27th
2 notes
3 tags
Jul 25th
1 tag
NCDD 2006 Peace Tiles on Flickr
I’m revisiting some photos from our past conferences while I build the new NCDD website and I’ve been encouraged to use these photos to add color to the pages about our upcoming events. They are of Peace Tiles, created during the the 2006 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation in San Francisco, and some of the most interesting images/objects to come out of the event. The...
Jul 19th
1 tag
Jul 17th
3 tags
Explaining E-Books
My wife is a constant and prolific reader. She started outpacing me years ago, so I just gave up in favor of other media. Recently, she purchased a Nook at Barnes & Noble as a means to make her books more convenient and portable. She loves it and I’m a little smittened too. There’s been a lot of chatter over the past few years about the future of books; how “they’re...
Jul 13th
1 note
1 tag
Write one leaf about growing pumpkins.
I have cultivated some skill over the years at growing pumpkins in the most unlikely places. With a small backyard, this is necessary. Where we live now the pumpkins from my garden will never contend for largest or heaviest, or even most impressive in Pennsylvania, but give me an eight foot plot of crappy soil and I’ll line the railings of our little deck with flickering jack-o-lanterns...
Jul 12th
4 notes
1 tag
Jul 11th
108 notes
2 tags
“I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a...”
– Jules Verne (via ilovefelinos)
Jul 9th
2 notes
2 tags
WatchWatch
I can support this.  Especially the easy mode for WiiFit.
Jul 9th
May 2010
19 posts
2 tags
May 23rd
2 tags
May 21st
2 tags
May 15th
34 notes
2 tags
May 15th
1 note
4 tags
President Obama vs. the Xbox
Mr. President, we get it. Parents are frustrated about video games and don’t know what to do. But enabling their apathy with pandering is not the solution. Most games provide quality entertainment, some even have additional educational benefits; and the most mature ones are already regulated by the industry, clearly identified as such. Parents need to take responsibility for what their...
May 14th
1 note
2 tags
The First Nanobot Assembly Line In Action
The future is rushing at us faster than ever… Today in Nature, a group of researchers announced they’d successfully operated the first assembly line populated entirely by nanobots. A release from Nature explains: Nadrian Seeman and colleagues create a nanoscale ‘assembly line’, in which DNA walkers move past programmable DNA machines that can deliver ‘cargo’ (gold...
May 13th
2 tags
May 12th
2 tags
WatchWatch
Games I’m Most Excited For #3:  S:S&S EP for the iPhone!
May 12th
Mini Donut Factory from ThinkGeek →
It’s a waffle maker… for donuts!
May 12th
1 tag
Fallout: New Vegas Special Edition is... Beautiful
reblogged from 8-bithero: Contents include: -“Lucky 7” poker chips (from an in-game casino) -Custom deck of cards -Platinum “Lucky 38” poker chip -“Making Of” DVD for the game -“All Roads,” a hardcover graphic novel written by the games’ creative director with Dark Horse -A totally awesome box -The game (yes, this is an important one) Three word summary: I need it. Me too!
May 11th
14 notes
2 tags
May 11th
2 tags
WatchWatch
reblogged from rocketboom: Birds on the Wires (music arranged by birds) - http://mag.ma/andrew/80422 Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were...
May 10th
3 notes
1 tag
"Sleep Is Death" Doors, Walls & Stairs →
Shannon Galvin has posted a second tutorial on advanced room building…
May 10th
1 tag
Hero →
The hero of the Times Square bomb attempt was an immigrant. A Muslim.  Senegalese newcomer Aliou Niasse was the first to notice the smoldering car and draw attention to it. He had no time left on his cell phone and realized his English probably wasn’t up to the task, so he got a passerby to call 911.  In Arizona the cops would have hauled him off to jail while the car exploded. reblogged...
May 10th
171 notes
2 tags
May 10th
1 tag
How Can You Not Take Advantage of This?
The Humble Indie Bundle Five of the best Indie Games of recent years, any platform and name your price? All to raise money for charities… Here’s how the Indie Games blog described it: Is this the greatest indie gaming bundle ever? The Humble Indie Bundle contains five big indie releases, DRM-free, choose how much you pay for them, part of your payment goes to charity… yep,...
May 4th
2 tags
May 4th
1 tag
May 4th
2 tags
Bounce & Give Me a Break!
Or, Why DSiware Pricing Sometimes Makes Me Go Whhaaatttt? Or Also, You Should Be Playing AlphaBounce Today’s DSiware releases for North America are pretty bland. But the one that stands out, and not due to its desirability mind you, is an Arkanoid-clone called “Bounce & Break”. Let me confuse you with its official description from a Nintendo press release… In this...
May 3rd
April 2010
16 posts
1 tag
“Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For...”
– Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Flash, April 2010
Apr 30th
2 tags
Apr 29th
1 tag
Look Ahead of the Yogurt →
Usually I just share one line from an unintentionally thought-provoking Nekoyanagi.net Google translation, but this one has several and it’s all about yogurt…
Apr 28th
1 note
Wonderful "Sleep is Death" Tutorial →
It’s the subtle, extra touches that make the difference.
Apr 28th
2 tags
Free Soundtrack to Game Arts' Magic Obelisk
One of my favorite online pastimes is hunting for free soundtracks to video games.  The variety of styles of video game music is wonderful, diverse and the quality always surprises me.  I’ve noted several worthwhile soundtracks on this blog before and recently made another discovery which just adds to my amazement that collections like this one are free. Game Arts has made available the...
Apr 23rd
CSS Border Radius →
Everybody please update your browsers.
Apr 22nd
2 tags
Cats & Red Laser Toys
(xkcd) I think red laser toys are for cats as Christmas and Santa Claus are for children. They are bright red, shiny, exciting but when the cat realizes who is responsible for the fun everything changes. Sure its still fun, but the magic is gone. I busted out the laser toy for Lord Byron last night, but instead of madly chasing it around the room, he simply sauntered past the bright spot,...
Apr 22nd
1 tag
Excellent "Sleep Is Death" Storybook →
Another amazing example of what you can do with the collaborative storytelling game Sleep is Death, created by Maxis veteran (I loved Maxis games) Shannon Galvin (he’s currently working as lead 3D artist on Jonathan Blow’s upcoming game The Witness.)
Apr 21st
1 tag
An Old Cartoon, Newly Inked
It’s been a while since I created an original single panel cartoon. I drew this several years ago, but since my inking is still pretty rough, I dug the sketch out and inked it for practice.  It turned out okay. Obviously, I have a lot of work ahead of me. I used to draw a lot more.
Apr 21st
1 tag
Sleep is Death
Sleep is Death is a remarkable “game”.  Sure, its not graphically sophisticated (or is it?) but what it provides in terms of collaborative storytelling is unlike anything you have ever tried. The creator, Jason Rohrer, explains Sleep is Death using the tool itself, but to understand it better you might want to check out the articles at Boing Boing, Kotaku or Joystiq.  In looking for...
Apr 20th
2 tags
Apr 20th
“Our eyes are bright sunshine.”
–  猫柳
Apr 16th
3 tags
Of Noisy Cats and Crows and Owls
My cat, the big guy, Lord Byron is sitting in our kitchen window hollering at a murder of crows.  They are clustered in a pine tree nearby pestering our resident nesting owl’s mate. The male owl hangs out on the house side of our yard to keep the crows focused on him while the female owl is busy with the hatchlings in the nest on the far side of the yard. One of the crows dropped down low...
Apr 16th
2 tags
WatchWatch
Is this for real?
Apr 15th
WatchWatch
I’m going to go play “Pirates” now…
Apr 15th
2 tags
“I’m still crispy from the flowers.”
–  猫柳
Apr 7th
March 2010
19 posts
“Sometimes, it’s the dead of night and you’re just sitting in the...”
– David Hinkle, Contributing Editor for Joystiq.
Mar 30th
2 tags
Sushi Cat: An Indie Game for Cat & Peggle Fans
At the intersection of the Venn Diagram linking cat owners and Peggle players lies a cute little free, browser-based flash game called Sushi Cat. Created by prolific flash game designer Joey Betz, for Armor Games, Sushi Cat challenges you to stuff a little blue kitty with sushi in a quest to stave off hunger and seek the friendship of a little pink kitty. Sushi Cat is lonely. Lonely and very...
Mar 29th
4 tags
Mar 27th
1 note
1 tag
Mar 18th
203 notes
1 tag
Confidence Building from "Talk To Me"
Petey: What if I ain't good enough?
Vernell: Hell! Every man I know ain't good enough, Petey! But even with all your shit, you the only one who is.
Petey: ...
Vernell: Now, come on! Look at you! You the man with the pants!
Petey: Yeah.
Vernell: The shit-talking, pimp-walking, good-Ioving man.
Petey: Oh, that's right.
Vernell: The mack that's the head of the Cool Cat Clan! Give me some!
Petey: Preach on.
Vernell: And you'll be damned if you take shit from any black, yellow, green or white man. Amen! Hallelujah!
Petey: Baby, did I tell you how good you look?
Vernell: I know!
Mar 11th