So, I was sitting at a table with a number of young adult and pastor friends, playing board games. And the topic of iPods came up. Specifically, why “The Kids” seem so obsessed with them…

As the conversation carried on, I sank progressively lower in my chair. Because I love my iPod. I read books on it, I play games on it, I listen to podcasts about game design, webcomics and Ninjas on it, I write my random thoughts out for the world to read on it, I  study the Bible on it, and I doodle on it. (see illustration) There’s a Flashlight, an alarm clock, a level, a ruler, a dictionary, a planetarium, a Monosynth, a Seismograph, and audio Bug Repellent. I tend to keep six new-to-me webcomics going in my tabs at a time. Oh and I occasionally listen to music…

I’ve taken to calling it “My Tech.” (This sometimes includes my camera and usb key, and will ultimately also include my upcoming laptop and drawing tablet. ) I try to never let the battery die completely, and never completely fill the hard drive. And I only ever dropped it while running on the treadmill so it landed on the belt and was shot into the stairclimber once. And I have never had it explode. (Like I always say, you take good care of your tech, and it won’t blow up in your face.)

Y’know I’ve squeezed so much usability from this little thing, I can’t imagine what I could do with a PDA whose makers don’t make up stupid little rules about what Apps can and cannot do…

So I had this idea for my next batch of business cards; something to make them a little unique, give them a bit more value, and encourage people to look at them more than twice.

Basically, on the front of each card there will be a character and some stats, while on the back, along with my contact info, will be the (very brief) rules for the game.
The line art I did in ink with my favorite Hunt bowl-pointed nib,  at about twice the printed size, then scanned the drawings and vectorized them in Inkscape.
My original intent for the art style was to emulate Victorian children’s card games, this is where I got my colour palate. Then I stumbled across some old bubblegum trading cards, and adopted some ideas there. I used the pencil tool to rather haphazardly trace out areas of colour, then I shifted them a little, to emulate cheap colour separation when done by a chainsmoking little old lady during the 1930s.

I’ve only got three coloured now. the rest I’ll colour eventually, as well as adding a few more characters. The old paper texture is just for effect. The final print image will be printed on antique style cardstock.

For the record, these characters BASICALLY have no relation to any of my current storylines. Most of them are just random people (things) that’ve popped into my head over the past few years, except the Cait Gypsie, from a dead storyline; the wandering Mad Scientist, an ancestor of another of my characters; The Metal Snail, my mascot; and the Aer Pyrate, who is so painfully genaric it makes my head hurt. Yes they all look pretty threatening, and maybe that is undesirable on a business card, but this is to be a combat-based card game. So, yeah

Once I’m done I’ll put all the cards here for download, along with some alternate rules, (I’m keeping the stats nice and ambiguous) full size SVGS of the lineart, and blank card templates. Because of my current kick, the whole thing will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, meaning: do with it whatever you want as long as what you want doesn’t include making money or removing my name and website. You can even use this image if you want, but the full size SVGs might be more use…

So at work during my off times I’ve been powerwalking on the treadmill whilst watching cartoons on the Family Channel. In my 45 minute workout I get to watch the last half of ‘Recess’, all of ‘Phineas and Ferb’, and the first half of ‘The Weekenders’. The first is a caricature/social comentary of elementary school life; The last is a slight more instructional in nature, insisting on spelling out the morals throughout the episodes via a fourth wall breaking comentary, but still manages to pull its weight enternainment wise with well rounded characters and rather sophisticated humor. ‘Phineas and Ferb’ by contrast is pure oddball humor and form plots (every episode, basically the same things happen. The stories revolve around two brilliant, industrious brothers who take on a new impossible task every day. Every day they succeed, and every day their work is destroyed after they finish. Phineas’ catch phrase is “I know what we’re going to do today, Ferb!”
I know it’s just a cartoon that I shouldn’t take too seriously, but I can’t watch the show without feeling guilty fot being more productive.
Today though, I had a similar moment with my little brother. We made root beer by first boiling equal parts brown sugar and water, then boiling until reduced by half, Removing from heat, and steeping fennel and anise leaves in until cooled. A couple spoonfulls in a glass of ice and soda water, tastes basicaly like root beer…

So I’m back off to work tomorrow; I kinda meant to post a couple of my journal entries from my last rotation over my week off, but the iPod Touch that I bought for the express purpose of maintaining my blog has YouTube and an App Store with lots of free indie games…
For those of you who don’t know, I have a really cool job cooking at a construction camp. I work for two weeks at a time to one week off, I’ll either work day or night shift ten hours a day. (I was working nights this last time) The people are really friendly, the complex is clean, I get my own room, and there’s a “Eat whatever you want” rule…
And the food… Every day at dinner they serve three different meat entrées and a plethora of salads. (At first I was having everything, then I decided that cooks need less food than mechanics and tree fellers)
I think though, that about seventy percent of my diet was cookies. Our baker, “Aunt” Francie, is simply amazing at what she does. My kryptonite is the chewy peanut bars with the score bits in them.
The people I work for/with are just a lot of fun. Kurtis is a laid back Jamie Oliver-type personality who used to be really into the punk scene. Nick is a bit more intense, but not in a panicky way; He has a very unique ability to see the negative side of everything and maintain a good attitude. He also talks like a stereotypical Canadian, which is totally rad.* Francie seems like a rather quiet, sensible older lady at first blush; The sensible part fits, but she is rather outspoken and has a sense of humor that could only be described as audacious. (It’s rather sad, but as I’m coming into camp this week, all three of those people are leaving…)

Okay, I wouldn’t normally post someone else’s content on my website, but check this out:

Interactive storytelling of any kind is enough to get me all geek-jittery, (gji#R3) but a form that is also real-time sensitive AND requires nothing more than animated gif/gif technology? *Swoons*

I see some real applications for this, especially if combined with something like the JavaScript rollover as seen in Sam and Max: The Big Sleep

The coolest part is that this is a guest comic. I guess you can expect something really cool to happen when the writer of an experimental interactive comic guest strips an experimental clip-art comic. (Although, both Dinosaur Comics and MS Paint adventures have been running long enough that I don’t know if they still count as ‘experimental’. But they were for like the first ten strips anyhow…)

(Younger readers -or their parents- may want to skip all of the comics in this post for reasons totally related to swears, occasional gratuitous violence and immature sexual dialogue)

Continue reading WebberKabern – Episode I: A New Hope For Web Surfing

The Negative Motivation Project As a kid I used to play tetris, trying to make interesting patterns, apparently I wasn’t the only one…

Golden Words A fun, if incredibly impractical (not to mention expensive) method of communication…

opsound Where creative commons music is to your ears… No wait…

If I ever design a house, the kitchen and master bedroom will be on separate floors.
Our kitchen is right beside my parents’ bedroom, and believe you me, fixing yourself an early breakfast without waking anyone up around here is like Metal Gear meets Splinter Cell, times Thief: The Dark Project. To the power of Castle Wolfenstein. Everything in the kitchen makes noise, and oftentimes my choice of food depends on how quiet it is to prepare. The fact that my Mom sleeps with the door open doesn’t help things at all. (Sometimes I’ll push the door closed, but that too makes noise.)
I cannot describe the experience. Every time a cupboard door creaks, a plate clinks, or I open the frige I grit my teeth and hold my breath, worried that I woke up Mom and the kids (Did I mention they sleep there too?)

Sorry about that guys, I sounded like one of those annoying LiveJournal people who broadcast their entire life story on their blog… Wait, I’m missing something:

Listening to: Nothing, I don’t listen to music and type at the same time
Mood: Annoyed that I just wrote a blog post like a LiveJournal user…

Sullivan Snail, Mechanical Metal Mollusk, lover of all things random and unrelated has compiled some links for your browsing pleasure:

• Pearls Before Breakfast - A long, long article from the Washington post about beauty and context. And violin music.
• Incompitech’s Graph Paper Generator - Really handy tool this; create any kind of graph paper imaginable, at any size, then download it as a PDF.
• The Golden Mean – Totally Sullivan’s cousin. Half of me is elated that other people like steampunk metal snails; (talk about a small fanbase) The other half just wishes people would stop STEALING MY IDEAS!