Enjoying: Requiem for a day off

What do you get when you cross the teen hi-jinks of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the grim descent into junky hell of Requiem for a Dream. A grim descent into teen hijinks? Maybe, just with less hijinks. (That Requiem for a Dream - great film as it is - can bring anything down.)

This very nicely cut together mash-up trailer from Benjifilms shows you how.

Enjoying: A Prisoner's Dilemma

A Prisoner's Dilemma is perhaps the most engaging piece of theatre I've been to since I saw David Mamet's Speed the Plough. I saw Speed the Plough maybe 15 years ago and it has this amazing moment right near the end which hinges on one decision that one of the characters has to make. The pause while the character is waiting to tell the others what he is going to do is just nail-biting.

A Prisoner's Dilemma revolves largely around decision making as it is a pretty thorough investigation of Game Theory. (According to Wikipedia - Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others.)

In essence it boils down to cooperation, trust, selfishness and betrayal.

It frames a series of short discussions and examples of practical applications of Game Theory inside one of the classic Game Theory scenarios, the Prisoners Dilemma.

Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies ("defects") for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

(Wikipedia)

The play sees the prisoners in their cells between a series of these interrogations, discussing a range of ethical problems related to game theory and playing games (such as rock/paper/scissors) to pass the time. Where this play really kicks things up a notch is that most of these discussions then have a heavily interactive element, with members of the audience called upon to make the decisions that are the basis of these problems.

This is done in a very (computer) game like manner, either using a torch (with blue and red cellophane squares) as a sort of mouse cursor for a basic point and click adventure game puzzle, remote controls to move the actors around the stage, joystick controllers to determine player/actor actions in a poisoning game or the simpler action of drawing stones from a bowl.(Or choosing not to)

Not surprisingly, this was right up my alley having been swimming around in game design theory for the last few months and it was an incredibly effective way of making the audience a significant part of the show.

As a show itself, it was simply but well staged - it made use of some really interesting trombone generated electronic music and the performances were strong. The performers were also quick enough on their feet to accommodate the unpredictable audience actions (even though decisions tended to be either/or scenarios).

Sadly the season has finished in Canberra but if you get the chance to see it, do.
Interestingly, they tour it as an educational piece and take it to maths nerd conferences a lot as well.

They also track the decisions made in each show and post the stats on their website, which is just so nerdy is has to be cool.

LULzing: Sn4tchbuckl3r's Second Chance

From the people who brought you "You sujck at Photoshop" comes an equally funny spin-off series - Sn4tchbuckl3rs Second Chance.

Sn4tchbuckl3r was Donnie's World of Warcraft guild buddy who was often interrupting his angsty photoshop tutorial/relationship crises with increasingly persistent demands to come back and play the game.

This new series sees Sn4tchbuckl3r coming to terms with his MMORPG addiction and seeking help in a new (Second Life/Sims looking) game dedicated to teaching gamers how to be better people.

I've only seen the first episode so far but it's absolute gold. They've made about half a dozen so far with more to come.

Best gag so far - "What's the key command for curling myself up into the foetal position and crying myself to sleep?" "Shift-Command-C - but it's not available until beta 2".



(Evidently there all also plans to revive the "You suck at Photoshop" series too (which recently picked up both the Best How-to and Best Comedy series videos in the Webby awards). A story on Wired tells us that:

"Once fans began to realize this was the end of Donnie Hoyle, there was a sudden outcry of anger and confusion," said Hitch, who voices the tutorials, in a phone interview. "People were sending hate mail ... posting [threatening] comments and generally doing everything in their individual web 2.0 power to get us to bring Donnie back."

Hate mail and threats? - FFS, seriously. What are some Internet people like?

Anyway, I'm happy to hear it will be back as it is a great series.

Still playing: GTA IV

Ok, just a couple of quick updates:

Niko Bellic can swim (I haven't tried swimming under water yet)

The radio stations really are awesome - spent a few hours driving around Liberty City last night to some very cool jazz. The music you choose really does create a different mood to the gaming experience. Given the "reality" (as far as I know anyway) of the city and the hundreds of films set in New York, it's hard not to make connections. One minutes you're driving around Mean Street, another it's Annie Hall. (Now if I can just find a nerdy looking guy wearing glasses playing clarinet to run over with my Hummer/Patriot, the gaming experience will be complete.)

The social commentary keeps getting better as well on the Fox-like (Weasel) radio station - hard-core Neocons banging on about the need to scrap the minimum wage, health care and so on because it's making America uncompetitive - not sure you'll be getting that in Duke Nukem Forever. (And the little ubernerd kid whose solution to world hunger - "it's a supply and demand problem" is to compost a majority of the worlds hungry poor people to increase food production - all played with a perfectly straight bat and all hilarious.)

Playing: GTA IV (Finally) (Spoiler free)

I've been waiting for this installment in the Grand Theft Auto series for a long time - and longer than most given that I've been embracing the role of diligent student and deliberately not playing it until I finished my big uni assignment for the semester. (Ironically, an assignment all about playing games - oh the torture :)

Anyway, 01.30 yesterday morning saw me typing the final words of my critical reflection of the project and so I trundled into work yesterday morning happy as Leisure Suit Larry to collect my copy of GTA IV from a colleague who had been safe-keeping it for me. (I don't have a whole lot of self control when I'm procrastinating so it seemed like the best idea). Managed to avoid ducking home early (tempting as the prospect was) and after dinner settled in for some quality time in Liberty City.

It's funny the impact that working on my uni assignment has had on me, a large part of it was dissecting FPS games into key elements (which applies equally to any kind of game) and I'd say there were at least a dozen points in the game where I found myself thinking - oh, that's clever, I really like how they've used contextual HUD information there. Fortunately, this wasn't too distracting and just added to my emotional enjoyment of the game as an artifact. (Gaah, stop it. Stop it now brain - you don't have to be smart any more, just shut up and drive :)



I will make use of the Jarvinen model (Jarvinen, 2007) - sorry :) to talk about my initial responses to this game though as it's a good way of covering all the bases.
Jarvinen says that all games - sport, cards, video games etc - need to have at least 7 of these 9 elements - Player, Game Mechanics (what you can do), Components (the things you do stuff to), Game Environment (the playing field), Rule Set, Information (your score, health, etc), Theme (story and style), Interface (controllers etc)and Context (when and where it's played.)

Player: I've just been playing the single-player mode so far - there's so much to see and do (and fortunately I think I've made it through most of the earlier necessary-but-trudging training missions). Given the head start that pretty well every other GTA IV player has had on me, I suspect my early experiences of Multiplayer on Xbox Live will see me getting seriously pwned, but that's ok.

Game Mechanics: As I say, there's already plenty of stuff to see and do in the game. I took a bit of a wander around the space after going through the opening sequence and just tried out the buttons and tooled around. This showed me that you in addition to the usual run/jump/fight/steal cars/drive thing you can pick up small items and throw them.

After a few hours play (during which time more activities get unlocked or explained), I can also shoot, stab, use my mobile phone, use the internet, watch tv, play darts, going bowling , hail a cab, climb fences, catch the train, try on clothes, get a lap-dance and give money to homeless people. I can also get drunk, which hugely affects your ability to walk and drive. This is by far the most impressive and accurate re-creation of the way you see things when drunk that I've ever seen on screen. It captures that hazy, sliding around and lurchy quality to perception in a way that actually made me feel slightly ill.

They've done a lot of work with fighting in this game - it's not just a matter of mashing away at punch and kick buttons until your opponent goes down - you need to intelligently move around and duck, block and time your blows. (Or, you know, just shoot tha mutha uckers)

One thing that surprised me a little bit was the fact that I couldn't swim. Jumped in the river and drowned in seconds. Given that your character (Niko Bellic) just got off the boat after spending 7 months in the merchant navy, this is pretty weird. (Maybe he learns to swim later or something, I don't know)



Components: the objects, the stuff in the game, notably the cars/motorbikes/trucks/etc, the furniture and the other characters. In a word, awesome. None of the other GTA games are set in the present and I've always wondered how modern stuff would look in the game - the design is beautiful and the eye candy is delicious. Something else that I've really appreciated so far is that you don't have to grind through hours of (albeit fun) gameplay before you get to drive cooler and better performing cars. I was hooning around town in a BMW clone and fancy sports cars within an hour or so of starting the game.



Game Environment: The other part of the eye candy is the amazingly detailed and well textured world Rockstar have created for you to freely roam around in. (If you're not aware, GTA IV is set in Liberty City, their version of New York City, which closely mirrors the real thing). So far I've still only wandered around the island on the right and the little one at the top and it is just massive. Very easy to just roam about looking at cool stuff. It does suffer from that sandpit game curse of having most of the doors locked but given the size of the place, it's understandable.

Sound is of course the other big part of the game environment and it is equally kicking. World sounds (cars, people on the street, machinery, etc) are crystal clear and spot on and the in car radio stations (something which has always set the GTA series above the pack) have been cranked up another notch of awesomeness. They cover everything from hardcore metal to smooth jazz, electro, reggae, Russian pop (better than you'd think) and at least another dozen disparate genres. Throw into the mix some hilarious and scathing social commentary via the ads and the conservative shock-jock talk radio and peace-love and mung beans community radio stations and you have aural pleasure.

Rule Set - what you can and can't do and your goals in the game. This is partially tied to physics, partially to story and partially just to good practice. As I've mentioned, you seriously can't swim, unsurprisingly you can't jump down more than a flight of stairs without getting squished, the cars handle more realistically that in previous games (and thus more trickily) and as I've mentioned, your skills totally go to hell when you get drunk.

Oh and you can't jump up on stage in the strip club to dance with the girls - evidently management frown on that and the bouncers will beat you.



Information - points, health, money - all that kind of stuff. It also includes maps, mission briefings, stats and the like. The GTA games provide you with a trainspotterish wealth of information about everything that you have done in the game. The stats section, which tells you everything from the percentage of the game you have completed to how far you have ridden trains to how many car tyres you have shot, spreads to something like 7 different (scrollable) screens.

Of course, none of this is generally mission critical, this stuff is presented through the usual heads up display which gives you your map (which makes use of GPS technology to show you the best routes to take) and your health bar (which is discretely - possibly too discretely as I kept losing track of how badly injured I was - tucked on the side of the circle your map sits in). Other information is displayed depending on whether you need it - if you are carrying a weapon you can see how much ammo you have, if the police are chasing you, you can see your wanted level and when you get or spend some money you get a running tally. If you don't need the information there and then, it's taken off the screen to allow you to enjoy the Liberty City eye candy. Very nice design principle that.

I mentioned that you also get a mobile phone - game characters can call or text you (and you can call them) and it also seems to have an organiser (though this hasn't been activated just yet). When you get shot, you see a blood splatter around the outside of the screen which sends a definite message that you need to not get shot again. There are subtitle options - which I thought I'd find useful in working out what the rasta gangsta was saying, but it turned out to be just as slangy and indecipherable in text as sound.

There is also internet access (though I appear not to have unlocked that in the game in any meaningful way just yet) and if you steal a police car you can access their computer network as well. (Again, not yet unlocked in the story but the fact that you can get to the initial screens - just to get a "network problems" message - offers hints of rewards to come.)



Theme: The story and the style of the game - As I say, I haven't gotten far in to this yet, still working through the getting settled, teaching you how to play the game and use the controls and so on phase at the moment. The gist is that you are Niko Bellic, a Serbian (?) guy who fought in the war, made some bad decisions and has come to the U.S for a fresh start, inspired by the stories of success from his cousin Roman. Roman isn't quite the high flier he has made himself out to be and so the direction we are headed (as with pretty well all the GTA games) is to make it big any way you can.

So far there has been a little bit of trouble with Albanian loan sharks, some dealings with Russian gangsters and the befriending of a rasta gangsta.

In spite of all the hype about "murder simulators" and such, there have been a number of positive behavioural messages subtly slipped into to the game already. You are praised for not driving drunk and taking a cab instead and chided for not calling someone when you have to break a date with them. It doesn't seem possible to make money by beating up/mugging innocent people on the street either (not that I've given this a red hot go) - only bad guys. Fortunately, this hasn't detracted from the game experience, if anything, given a little depth to it.

Interface - the controller. The controls for the Xbox 360 seem to have stayed pretty much the same with a few tweaks and improvements. Automatic targetting and free targetting have both been put on the left trigger (the latter using a half squeeze only). Camera control is ok (and I really like the ability to completely remove the HUD entirely - though maybe this isn't a new thing) but takes a bit of getting used to and it would be nice if it locked onto Niko's back a little more but this is a small quibble. It would be interesting to see what might be done with motion sensitivity in the control system but I'm happy as it is.

Context - when and where you play - not so relevant here - although I can see some potential for creating machinima out of this game (it's just so frackin' pretty), so a PC version would be needed for that. (Coming next year apparently).

So yeah, it's pretty awesome.

(The shots that are littered throughout this post are actual gameplay shots as well, not just prettied up cut-scene animations. This really is what the game looks like. Given the eye-candy, I guess another context aspect would be that it would be even better played on a big kick arse 50 inch plasma tv :)

Reading: a bunch of stuff about games

Hoo - frackin - ray.

I've finally finished my monster assignment on "Creating the First Person Learner: Educational Applications of the First Person Shooter game genre". I'll bang on more about it later but I have to say it was pretty interesting and I'm pretty happy with what I managed to come up with. (I just hope that my lecturer shares these feelings)

The list of papers, books, websites and whatever that I referenced is pretty long but offers a bit of an insight into the kinds of stuff that a lot of people get paid to do research on. Frankly, if they are, why not me? :)

(I've bolded the ones that I thought were really interesting if you're into games)

Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: General Learning Press.

Bogost, I. (2007) Persuasive Games: Casual as in sex, not casual as in Friday Gamasutra (2844) Retrieved June 6th, 2008 fromhttp://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1937/persuasive_games_casual_as_in_.php

Cheng, P. (2007) Waiting for something to happen: Narratives, Interactivity and Agency and the Video Game Cut-Scene Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Duffy, J. (2006) GDC: Top 10 Video Game Research Findings Gamasutra (2645) Retrieved June 6th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2645/gdc_top_10_video_game_research_.php


Eastin, M. and Griffiths, R. (2006) Beyond the Shooter Game: Examining Presence and Hostile Outcomes Among Male Game Players. Communication Research 2006; 33; 448 Retrieved 31st May, 2008 from http://crx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/6/448

Endestad, T. and Torgerson, L (2003) Computer games and violence: Is there really a connection? Proceedings of DiGRA 2003 Conference: Level Up . Utrecht, The Netherlands: DiGRA

Falstein, N. (2008) Design Language: The Portal Paradoxes Gamasutra (3616) Retrieved June 6th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3616/design_language_the_portal_.php

Freeman, D. (2002) Four ways to use symbols to add emotional depth to games Gamasutra (20020724) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020724/freeman_01.htm

Frome, J. (2007) Eight Ways Videogames Generate Emotion Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Fuchs, M. (2001) Expositur - A Virtual Knowledge Space (Theory). Retrieved May 25, 2008 from Syl.Eckermann website http://syl-eckermann.net/expositur/theory.html

Fuchs, M. & Eckermann, S. (2001) From “First Person Shooter” to Multi-User Knowledge Spaces. In F. Nack (Ed.) Proceedings COSIGN 2001 - 1st Conference on Computational Semiotics for Games and New Media (pp. 83-87). CWI, Amsterdam.

Gagne, R., Briggs, L., & Wagner, W. (1992). Principles of Instructional Design. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Javanovich. pp 185-204.

Galarneau, L. (2005) Authentic Learning Experiences Through Play: Games, Simulations and the Construction of Knowledge. Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play . Vancouver, BC: DiGRA

Gee, J. (2004) Learning by Design: Games as learning machines Gamasutra (2056) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2056/learning_by_design_games_as_.php

Ghozland, D. (2007) Designing for Motivation Gamasutra (1419) Retrieved June 6th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1419/designing_for_motivation.php

Grimshaw, M. and Schott, G. (2007) Situated Gaming as a sonic experience: The acoustic ecology of First-Person Shooters Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Guttler, C. and Johansson, T. (2003) Spatial principles of level-design in multi-player first-person shooters Proceedings of the 2nd workshop on network and system support for games (pp. 158 - 170) New York, NY: ACM

Harris, J. (2007) Game Design Essentials: 20 Unusual Control Schemes Gamasutra (1937) Retrieved June 6th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2844/game_design_essentials_20_unusual_.php

IGDA (2006) International Game Developers Association 2006 Casual Games White Paper retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.igda.org/casual/IGDA_CasualGames_Whitepaper_2006.pdf

Jarvinen, A. (2007) Introducing Applied Ludology: Hands-on methods for Game Studies Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Johnson, B. (2001) Great Expectations: Building a player vocabulary Gamasutra (3052) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3052/great_expectations_building_a_.php
Kane, B. (2003) 34 Ways to put emotion into games Gamasutra (2884) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2884/34_ways_to_put_emotions_into_games.php

Jonsson, E. (200?) If looks could kill: An evaluation of eye tracking in computer games. Masters Thesis, Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science, Royal Institution of Technology, Stockholm.

Kearney, P. (2005) Cognitive Callisthenics: Do FPS computer games enhance the player’s cognitive abilities? Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play . Vancouver, BC: DiGRA

Kent, S. (2004) Manhunt to Mortal Kombat: The use and future use of violence in games Gamasutra (2056) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2056/learning_by_design_games_as_.php

Kuhlman, T (2008) Motivate your learner with these 5 simple tips The Rapid E-Learning blog Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/motivate-your-learners-with-these-5-simple-tips

Larsen, T. (1999) Designing games for novice gamers Gamasutra (3338) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3338/designing_games_for_novice_gamers.php

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, June). ADDIE Model at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, June). Behaviorism at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, June). Situated Learning Theory (Lave) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.learning-theories.com/situated-learning-theory-lave.html

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, June). Social Development Theory (Vygotsky) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html

Learning Theories Knowledgebase (2008, June). Social Learning Theory (Bandura) at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html

Magnussen, R. (2007) Teacher roles in learning games - When games become situated in schools Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA
McGrath, D. and Hill, D. (2004) UnrealTriage: A Game-based Simulation for Emergency Response Institute for Security Technology Studies, Dartmouth College. Retrieved 31st May 2008 from www.ists.dartmouth.edu/library/58.pdf

McMahan, A. (2003) Immersion, Engagement and Presence: A method for Analysing 3-D Video games. In Wolf, M. and Perron, B (Ed.), The Video Game Theory Reader (pp.67 - 86) New York: Routledge

Michael, D. and Chen, S. (2005) Proof of Learning: Assessment in Serious Games Gamasutra (2433) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2433/proof_of_learning_assessment_in_.php

Moore, C. (2008) How to turn your learners into compulsive completers Making Change - ideas for lively elearning Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://blog.cathy-moore.com/?p=204

O’Connell, M. (2008) ADDIE Design Process Canberra, ACT: Flex.Ed/CIT

Oliver, M. and Pelletier, C. (2005) The things we learned on Liberty Island: designing games to help people become competent game players. Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play . Vancouver, BC: DiGRA

Paras, B (2003) Learning to Play: The design on in-game training to enhance videogame experience
Simon Fraser University 2003

Peters, J. (2007) World of Borecraft: Never play a videogame that’s trying to teach you something Slate 2169019 Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.slate.com/id/2169019/

Pinchbeck, D. (2007) Counting barrels in Quake 4: affordances and homodiegetic structures in FPS worlds Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Pinchbeck, D., Stevens, B., Van Laar, D., Hand, S., Newman, K. 2006. Narrative, agency and observational behavioiur in a first person shooter environment. Presented at Narrative AI and Games AISOB Symposium, Bristol, UK, April 2006

Pinchbeck, D. (2008) Story and Recall in First-Person Shooters [Electronic Version] International Journal of Computer Games Technology Volume 2008 pp.1-7
Rambusch, J., Jakobsson, P. and Pargman, D. (2007) Exploring E-sports: A Case Study of Gameplay in Counter-Strike Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA
Ryan, T. (1999) Beginning Level Design, Part 1 Gamasutra (3329) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3329/beginning_level_design_part_1.php

Ryan, T. (1999) Beginning Level Design, Part 2: Rules to Design by and Parting Advice Gamasutra (3332) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3332/beginning_level_design_part_2_.php

Sorensen, B. and Meyer, B. (2007) Serious Games in language learning and teaching - a theoretical perspective Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: FuturePlay . Tokyo, Japan: DiGRA

Sylvester, T. (2005) Decision-based gameplay design Gamasutra (2264) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2264/decisionbased_gameplay_design.php

Taylor, C. (2007) Reward Players, Don’t Punish them! Game Daily (70504) Retrieved June 8th, 2008 from http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/reward-players-dont-punish-them/70504/?biz=1
Thompson, J. (2006, May 24) Proposal is needed to prevent a Louisiana “Columbine” Shreveport Times

Thompson, J. (2005) JackThompson.org Retrieved June 1st, 2008 from http://www.jackthompson.org/index.htm

Wilson, G. (2006) Off with their HUDs!: Rethinking the Heads-Up Display in Console game design Gamasutra (2538) Retrieved June 7th, 2008 from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2538/off_with_their_huds_rethinking_.php

Marking: more than a year without shampoo

A year and five days ago I stopped using shampoo. This was because I'd read that shampoo actually makes your hair worse by breaking down the natural oils in your hair and creating a cycle of dependency. The theory goes that if you can stop using it for 6 weeks, your hair finds its natural balance and is healthier.

I chronicled the first hundred days or so of this experiment here and to be honest I pretty much forgot about it after that.

Anyway, I'm happy to report that all is still going well in the follicle department - it isn't smelly or greasy (I rinse it well every shower) and feels full and healthy.
Brushing it every day makes a difference - distributing the natural oils more I guess - this was something that I forgot about a little on the cycling holiday and wondered why it was getting a little messy (wearing a bike helmet all day probably didn't help either) but since I've been back and brushing, it's all good. (I could probably do with a trim but that's a whole other matter)

The "health and beauty" industry - putting the sham into shampoo.

Considering: English of the Dead

This game - English of the Dead - looks like a fascinating example of exactly what I'm exploring in my current project into using First Person Shooter (FPS) games for educational purposes - in this case language teaching.

It addresses one of my biggest problems with the genre which is it's lack of support for the learner to input language into the system. Being a game for the Nintendo DS (which I'm seriously considering getting now with the imminent release of the awesomely titled Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ), it is able to make use of the two stylus controlled touch screens, providing space on the bottom screen for the player to physically write in letters that they need to make the words to stop the attacking zombies. (Yeah yeah, again with the zombies)

This promotional video for the game gives the gist - it's all in Japanese and the style and graphics are out there (what is in the water up there?) but it's interesting. There's also a (violence free) demo that you can play online at http://eod.sega.jp/taiken/

Intrigued by: The Moog Guitar

I'm a lapsed guitarist at best but even I can see that the new guitar coming out from Moog (formerly famous for the Moog Synthesiser) is a pretty exciting development.

Evidently they've fiddled around with the metal in the strings and done magic with the pickups so that any note can have infinite sustain or instantly mute (and variants in between).

Hey, if Lou Reed is excited about it, who am I to say no.

Remembering: Oradour-Sur-Glane

I didn't take any photos when I visited the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane in the middle of France - it just didn't seem right.

64 years ago today, the 642 men, women and children of the village were rounded up by the occupying German army and massacred and every building in town was set on fire. Today the ruins stand as a permanent memorial. There's a large underground visitors centre providing the background to the event, from the rise of the Nazis to what happened after the massacre but ultimately - while the centre is still chilling - it's the ordinariness of the ruins that really puts life into perspective.

These are some pics from the official Oradour-Sur-Glane website.







Of everything in the town, it was the tramlines that really brought it home to me that this had once been a modern city. You can walk around and see bullet holes in the walls and burnt out cars but for some reason, imagining people going about their business riding the tram just made the place somewhere I could relate to.

The reasons offered for the murders vary but generally speaking it seems that with the Allied D-Day landings four days previously offering new hope to the French Resistance, the Germans felt a need to send a message - a brutal message - that this would be crushed. It's also said to have been a direct reprisal for some relatively low level Resistance attacks on a German tank convoy heading north through the area towards Normandy - which could possibly have been as minor as two pissed French guys on a hill taking potshots at the convoy. (According to a friend from the area).





The worst of it was in the church, where after some shooting, the majority of people were burned alive, only one woman escaping by jumping through a window 20 feet from the ground.

I realise this isn't the most cheery of posts but memories of walking through this place still affect me - both in making a concrete connection to the barbarism that humanity is capable of but also in helping me to put my own trivial problems into perspective.

As an Australian, World War 2 has always been somewhat an arms length thing - we know the stories and people who might have fought there but the realities of having the Nazis (or Japanese) walking down your streets is a whole other thing. Certainly a much bigger thing than anything that might trouble me. (I can't even think of anything that I'd care to list, that's how trivial it all seems).

Walking through other cities in France, I'd occasionally think about this and the fact that a string of invaders walked these streets through history, along with The Terror of the latter parts of the French Revolution and the seemingly endless parade of wars of conquest over the last few millenia and I'd really wonder how much we as a species have it together. But then I'd see elements of the beauty and the goodness and the progress we have made and realise that it's all much bigger and far more complicated than that and that life goes on.

Still, it seems important that we never forget the darkness we are capable of.
Which is why I'll remember Oradour-Sur-Glane.

Loving: Flight of the Conchords

Yeah I know they've been around a little while now but I've finally caught up with Flight of the Conchords after catching little snippets of their show on YouTube and on tv.

And I'm happy to say that they live up to the hype.

I bought their self-titled album the other day and it's been on the cd player ever since.

For the as yet uninitiated, FOTC is "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" and in the last few years they've had a meteoric rise to fame, with a BBC1 radio series and now a successful HBO (Home of Bloody Oarsome) tv series.

Musically I'd put them somewhere in same field as Ween in terms of musical ingenuity, fun and their ability to effortlessly cross genres but they have a slightly more consistent sound and a Beck like ability to bring the groove. There are probably a number of other influences I'm not cool enough to have picked up on although it does seem as though they might like a little Bowie as well (judging by the all-eras Bowie tribute song called "Bowie" on the album)

The full first season of the tv show is winging it's way towards my place as we speak so I'll probably report on this at another time - for now, these clips from YouTube speak for themselves.

(Reinforcing my theory that the inclusion of robots automatically makes anything 50% cooler)



(Too many mutha uckers, ucking with my shi)

Struggling: with the assignment

11 days to go and I'm still researching every imaginable element of FPS gaming - by now I should be well on to designing a game and writing a report about the whys and wherefores, but the more I read the more ideas I have and the broader the project gets.

I still don't know whether to design a game for non-gamers or experienced gamers and haven't even come close to content yet (which I think will be learning language vocabulary but I'm not positive)

Yikes.

Pondering: a payment system for musicians

Insight on SBS last night had an interesting (if slightly shallow) look into the issue of music file sharing (or piracy if you will.)

They took the usual mixture of musicians, young downloaders (all teens), ISP nerds, media academics and the odd music industry bod and had a really good chat about the issues. As you might expect, the teens saw nothing wrong with what they were doing in general and had a number of self justifications for their actions - including the fact that they didn't want to pay for another Hummer for Kanye West (though they had the decency to feel embarrassed/apologise to the artists present that they had downloaded.

The artists were more ambivalent, not liking missing out on direct money for cds but appreciating the value of expanding their fan base and getting more people to live shows. The record labels were unsurprisingly outraged and produced figures which seemed entirely made up (though they were only questioned once on this by a media academic and former muso) which suggested that a billion songs are "stolen" every year, which translates to about $200M in lost revenue in Australia alone.

After a point it seems that the boots were out for the ISPs, who were seen as profitting the most from this traffic. Jenny Mackie, the host - who I normally hold in high regard - seemed a little out of her techo depth here, putting across the view (which was accepted by pretty well the whole audience) that every bit and byte of ISP traffic converts directly to extra payment by the user. The reality of course being the people go on set plans with x amount of data (unless they are suckers willing to pay extra punishment fees for exceeding these amounts - generally what you get with cheap plans) which means that transferring music costs no more than anything else. The feeling was that the ISPs should somehow be paying the music industry (and I wonder how much of that would hit the artists) for the actions of their users.

The issue of how much record labels screw artists over was another one that no-one raised - my understanding is that the proportion of money from CD sales that ends up in the hands of artists is scandalously low, and only after the labels "expenses" have all been accounted for.

The issue of songwriter income came up which was a pretty valid point that I hadn't factored in previously.

Anyways, I was thinking about this all this morning and was wondering if there might be room for a paypal kind of service that enabled fans to make direct micro-payments to "support" their favourite artists. (i.e get a little guilt reduction by paying for downloaded songs) (Not sure how song-writers fit in there but perhaps this information could also be provided or if you chose to "support" a song, the donation could be split between the two)

I can see more issues arising with something like this - listed artists bearing the ire of their labels and fans wanting anonymity in case they were labelled as pirates (rather than just fans wanting to give their favourite bands a little extra cash)

Just a thought. (Interesting that you can watch the whole show online for free too - not uncommon I know but I like the contrast)

LOLing: The Delusionists

The Delusionists are a group of university comedy revue types, much the same as the D-Generation, The Chaser and Monty Python started out. They're from Sydney and I have no problem putting them into the company of those three - their stuff really works and they know how to end a sketch.

Jesus: Healer, Preacher, Carpenter



Dick in a bottle. (In case you can't tell)



A few good men

Loving: Oz

You can tell when I have major work to do - I seem to discover some amazing new distraction for "study breaks".

I've been watching Oz, a dark, gritty prison drama for a while now but I've just finished the 4th season and it really is getting better and better. (At times it seems to be going a little over the top with the melodrama and the speed with which worlds of crap seem to poor down on the heads of everyone - but shit man, it's Oz and it's ok.)

Oz is set in Emerald City, the experimental unit of Oswald State Correctional Facility, which means that rather than bars everywhere, the prisoners live in a more open plan kind of place, with the cells closed off by some kind of plexiglass. From a tv perspective this makes a lot of sense as you have a much clearer view of the whole goings on.

Being an HBO show (home of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under - basically anything good from America that's been on tv in the last 10 years - except The West Wing), you get the full in-your-face gamut of language, sex, violence, drug use and other adult content. If you don't have a couple of people being brutally shanked (stabbed), beaten or otherwise killed in an episode, it's a slow week in the prison.

Episodes are tied together by some kind of overarching theme, provided by the shows narrator (of sorts), wheelchair bound Augustus Hill. These are often philosophical in nature and have ranged from the wide variety of home-made knives you find in a prison to famous people who have been prisoners (Galileo etc) and broader reflections on family or revenge.

I started searching the YouTube videos for something to show you but hit one spoiler and don't want to know any more. The link will give you an idea anyways.

Here's a clip I've put up previously that shows what happens when Seinfeld comes to visit Oz. (This came about because Seinfeld's cousin plays a thug biker in the show and apparently Jerry visits the set from time to time)

Seinfeld in Oz
by renzo433

Feeling: the pressure

14 days to go and 6400 words (and 2 game designs) to be done.

Shame that it's also a fairly busy time workwise.

I'd really rather start playing GTA IV right about now.

LOLing: Simon's cat

It's funny because it's true.

Enjoying: mean doctor slang

Ever wondered about the often incomprehensible acronyms and scribbles on medical charts? Chances are the doctor has more to say that you might think - and it's not always nice.

This website lists hundreds - possibly thousands - of these terms and makes for some entertaining reading.

Some of my personal faves:

Donorcycle - motorbike: the biggest cause of donated organs!
BTSOOM - Beats The Sh*t Out Of Me
PRATFO - Patient Reassured And Told to F*** Off
DENTIST - Doesn't Even Need Treatment - It's Sorted, Truly
LFTWM - Looking for 3 Wise Men (applied to young pregnant females who deny having had intercourse)
LGFD - looks good from door (but not closely examined, possibly an obnoxious patient)

Choosing: new wallpaper.

One good thing about the trip and the plethora of pix that came with it is the opportunity to change my desktop. These are the current choices.



(Holyrood Park, Edinburgh)



(One of the many oddly hyper symmetrical forests dotted around the countryside of southern France)

Dreaming: about going to Hell

Not a title you might expect to see all that often but I had a fragment of a dream this morning that is still bouncing around my lobes in a not entirely comfortable way. The details are fading fast but the vibe remains.

I was in a line in a marginally shabby hall near a few simple office tables with people sitting processing forms. One of the tables had a small machine similar to those used for finger-prick blood sugar analysis type tests but I was a little disturbed by the fact that they didn't change the needle between people, as though it really didn't matter anyway.

I hestitated about this and was told something along the lines of "just do it you baby" so I put my finger (my middle finger) in but turned it around nail side down. There was a small prick of the finger and a tiny drop of blood and then I wrapped it in a messy looking cotton-ballesque/papery kind of bundle.

I then proceeded through some narrow rooms, on my way somewhere and in the first were sinks/trenches(?) full of sewage (which looked a little like the toxic waste sections of Portal) and the next housed a man washing his hands that I knew I didn't want to talk to. There was suddenly a lot of nice looking sinks with soap beside them and after the last room I felt as though I wanted to wash my hands but felt that I shouldn't, it was a trap. Around this point I think I realised that this was hell and it was only going to get worse.

All very disturbing really - in my half awake state I then pondered what my hell would really be like - loud and crowded and aggessive dogs barking perhaps - and even now I have this vaguely uneasy sense.

I can put it down to the stir fry I made last night with a bunch of chilli in conjunction with being asked to formalise my Godfather status of some friends kid perhaps (which by the way I'm not in the least bit troubled about) and who knows what else is going on in my head.

I'm not a particularly religious person and I see the concept of Hell as a construct for social control but it wasn't a pleasant dream.

To top it off, there is a slightly lame half inflated blimp outside my window now which keeps bringing to mind the Spinal Tap episode of The Simpsons -

[During the Spinal Tap concert, a large devil appears and immediately deflates]
Tufnel: Well. It seems some silly twit did not get a big enough oxygen tank, but that's supposed to be a devil.
St. Hubbins: Filled up with air, it's very evil and impressive.
Smalls: We salute you, our half-inflated Dark Lord!

I have a strange mind sometimes methinks.