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July 13th, 2009

12:44 am: Ironic Hipster Mario Brothers
Been a while since I did a game review. Then again, most games aren't that noteworthy, or the people who are into this stuff already know about them, so there's no point in reviewing them.

Take one part French Impressionist artwork, take a sort of classical soundtrack, add it to a traditional 2D platform game, gently fold in time manipulation and bake. Maybe you should get baked too in the meantime.

The game is called Braid, an artsy hipster version of that old Nintendo classic. Sort of. One guy wrote all the code for it, the other guy drew all the art assets. The music was licensed from various musicians who probably didn't think that their music would ever end up in a game.

Unlike Mario Brothers, which you will find ironic references to throughout the game, this is not some twichfest with eye candy. There are real puzzles to solve, although certain parts will call on your traditional eye-hand coordination. All of the puzzles involve manipulating time in one way or another. There are no bonus lives in this game, because if you die, you can always rewind your way back out of it.

In fact to solve some puzzles, you have to "die" and then rewind, which is a very counter intuitive thing for a gamer to do. Almost all games you play of this genre, they drill it in, live live live, do whatever it takes to live. This is the first game I've seen, where in order to solve the level, you have to die.

The object of the game is to traverse sets of mazes and collect puzzle pieces. Collect enough puzzle pieces, and you can form an impressionist painting to hang in your house. Collect enough paintings and you can visit the final level.

The final level is something of a commentary on the whole "save the princess" theme in Mario Brothers. A sort of snide commentary. But the level is well designed and challenging to play without causing too much frustration. There was only one spot in the level I thought had more to do with luck than skill, but otherwise was fun to play.

One of the stated goals of the game from the official website (http://www.braid-game.com) is to respect the player's time and attention and I would agree. This is a game that can be left off and picked up whenever you want. This is not a game that requires you to spend 4 hours playing it to get anything out of it.

I won't say it's entirely innovative. Strip away the time manipulation and the impressionist artwork and you have a 2D platform game, and they're pretty much all the same. But it's more innovation than I've seen in most games in quite a long while. It's definitely worth playing.

July 7th, 2009

12:14 pm: Frankly, if I was you
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200907021653dowjonesdjonline000783&title=groups-mull-harry-and-louise-ads-to-sink-consumer-agency

I'd just shut up and stay in the background. You guys have zero credibility with the public right now.

I don't think another gubmint agency is a good thing, but if you guys obviously can't police yourselves, then sure, it's the lesser of two evils.

July 3rd, 2009

01:30 pm: That's crazy talk


He must be a real nutjob, a real crank. Actually, I don't think you can get much closer to the core of the establishment than him. Real fault lines are beginning to show up, up there. They're not all marching to the same tune anymore.

June 15th, 2009

06:00 pm: There are no answers, only choices
I wonder, if the guy stepping out of the ambulance was white, how would this have turned out? It's the question that drives us. Certainly drove that cop, for sure.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-6121-Oklahoma-Crime-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Oklahoma-Highway-Patrol-finally-releases-video-of-trooper-attack-on-paramedic



02:58 pm: The Schroedinger's Cat economy
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/11/us-house-to-debate-ron-pauls-audit-the-fed-bill/

Schroedinger proposed a thought experiment where if you didn't examine the cat's condition, you could say the cat was both alive and dead, or that you just didn't know.

I suppose if you've bet on the cat still being alive, you might be tempted not to look inside, especially if you're stretched a bit financially from, say, a wild night in Vegas that involved, oh, I don't know - some coke and hookers. The hope that that cat is still alive would be most comforting.

Here comes a guy who says "Hey, let's open the box and look inside". Let's find out if the cat is dead or not. Something tells me that there are people who are going to oppose this...

01:59 pm: The world is definitely getting wierd


I wonder where it's all headed to, but I don't know any more than anyone else does...

P.S. Well, at least I know who it is behind the videos - http://www.thegregorybrothers.com/ - and I must say after looking at that album photo, Feel The '70s!

01:49 pm: And that's why we're in trouble
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/percent-12829-seniors-school.html

"It doesn't surprise me too much because dealing with percentages is difficult for a lot of kids," said Serrano High School Principal Sharon Schlegel.

I'd like to throw out an idea for you to entertain. The idea is that this ignorance is INTENTIONAL. They don't want these kids to know about percentages, because that might make them smart enough to avoid some of the traps that the system lays out.

If I ever had a kid, I'd do him the greatest favor one could do. I'd teach him or her myself. And he'd damn well know not only percentages but compounding and other stuff as well.

01:17 pm: World currency
You know, 100-200 years ago we all had a world currency. It was gold. Granted every gubmint on the planet wanted to put their little unique mark on it to certify weight and purity, but gold was gold, and it was everywhere you wanted to be.

I don't think what some people are concerned about isn't a world currency. It's the whole structure of it. In the old days, The Man couldn't really jerk you around, or at least, it was pretty hard for him to jerk you around. It was portable, it was anonymous, it might not have been the most secure system, and those dastardly criminals were allowed to use the system too, but it seems that people got on well enough back then.

With everything stored as bits on a central server, you can dance to their tune, or you can watch them click their mouse at you. Of course, they'll sell it to you that they need to stop those terrorists, and no good upstanding citizen has nothing to hide.

I'm sure no purty lady at the airport has nothing to hide from those strip search scanners either, if you know wut I mean.

Cui bono folks, cui bono. You know, I said the typical American cares only about his or her self, but I think I need to add, in a most irrational way. Some of these systems that are coming are not in the majority's rational self interest.

June 9th, 2009

09:52 pm: It's the War on Fun update
http://spectrum.ieee.org/blog/computing/it/riskfactor/dont-smile-when-you-get-your-new-drivers-licence

Don't smile, don't you even dare. Expressions of happiness and joy are verboten. You will be serious and grouchy, and that's the way we like it.

12:33 pm: No, it's simple
http://www.newscientist.com/special/can-science-reinvent-economy

The people running the economy lied to you. Take Greenspan. He lied to you when he said buying a house in 2004 was a great idea. Unfortunately, too many people believed him and others like him.

Look, the economy consists of a web of promises made to each other. Although, I suppose it might be more accurate to call it a pyramid of promises, where the lower layers give everything and the upper layers give nothing back in return. As more and more of those promises are broken, people lose confidence in the whole set of promises (stop believing in their God).

Which points to something deeper - how do you organize a society to live? This is just one way to organize things, and it looks like for better or worse we're going to explore other alternatives.

I'll end with this - what's happening is neither good nor bad. It just is. If it's good or bad, it's in your head.

June 7th, 2009

08:39 pm: Never forget, America is a racist country
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html?_r=1&hp

You think all that hate went away in the '70s, when they passed the final series of laws guaranteeing civil rights to all? Nah.

It just got suppressed. And when hate is suppressed, it doesn't go away, oh no. Everything goes somewhere. Everything. Nothing is lost.

The old 20th century racial atrocities were so crude, so blunt, so stupid, so obvious. Welcome to the 21st century, where everything has become oh so more subtle, so much more refined, so much more indirect and unobvious now. But the burning hate that fuels it, that hasn't changed it seems.

I'm not sure what the answer to any of this is. Maybe like that ghosty guy said in the '02 version of the movie Solaris, there are no answers - only choices.

08:28 pm: Feel the '70s


07:02 pm: Feel the '70s


11:56 am: One of the hallmarks of a bear market
http://exiledonline.com/depression-porn-gaming-the-real-estate-market/

Is when prices go down and people feel good about it.

Contrary to just about every single economic metric — rising unemployment, rising credit card debt, falling production, spiraling real estate values — people are optimistic.

Bull markets are the opposite, prices rise and people either get scared about it or pooh pooh it or ignore it.

June 3rd, 2009

06:04 pm: Feel the '70s


June 2nd, 2009

09:08 am: Feel the '70s
http://www.jrbaldwin.com/boardgame

But I wonder, where's the bat country square? It has to have bat country in there somewhere...



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