Access Granted…

            Wow, it’s been almost two months since I’ve actually written a real update to this blog. Really sorry about the large batch of twitter posts that have taken up the time time. Somewhere between the beginning of August and now I’ve been distracted with so many things that it’s hard to figure out where to begin. Well, let’s take things in order.

             At the beginning of August I ended up doing two things involving my gaming. First, I took an official step down from United Role Play duties. I’m still on this hiatus for the most part. Currently I am looking at picking up official duties come October. My presence as a game administer is being tiered down and I will instead focus my efforts as lead forum administer and web development. The former is a sure thing but the later not so much. I’ve also joined a more general group of gamers, F7 Lans, a group of gamers currently focused on Team Fortress 2 gaming. I’m paying to be a supporter for them and I’m enjoying my time with them. I’m not taking up any official stance with them beyond fan and occasional advertiser to new folks to the servers. I want to keep my relationship with them purely based on fun and recreation.

            In addition to the efforts in my gaming communities, I’ve jumped on the Spore bandwagon. It’s a pretty fun game and I do recommend it. If you have it, my name is nulloperations if you want to buddy me.

            Continuing the time line, early September hosted my first convention, SLCC. This was so much fun. I was able to meet Frans, Rhiannon, Amu, Armath, Harper, and a number of new folks while we were down there. Disappointed Caycee and Kevin didn’t show up (with them living so close and all). In addition to learning many useful SL business tidbits, I also got to really sit down and use Raven’s Mac. Okay, I admit it, I really enjoyed the experience. NOT FROM USING A MAC! But from using a laptop. Still hate Macs, but I do like laptops now. I’m already planning on buying one next year.

            The convention was such a great experience that when we came home in the evenings that weekend I started a crazed effort into building the new House of RFyre store. I had the bulk of the shape finished by Sunday evening. As it stands, texture work on the build it at 90% for the core structure. Detail work will come later but for now the core of the build is complete save the last bits of paint. I will start posting images later as the structure comes together and we near the final release date of October 20^th. That’s the day we’re clearing out the rest of the island and moving the structure down into place. Vendors will start moving in those nights too.

            Speaking of mid-October, I will be officially losing my job on the 17^th. I don’t hold any grudges against my work place. Its business and sometimes folks get swept under in the choices. No, I still won’t say where I work as that’s part of that crazy employee contract.

            Those are the current updates in a nut shell. I’m going to try (again) to get back to posting more often. I also need to get back into finishing up the new design for the website. I have some nice texture work done and I think it comes off rather nicely.

Later for now,

Justin

So I’ve been thinking of some changes for the site. I’ve already did a new theme, now I’m working on customizing it. In addition to that, I’m considering changing the name of the blog. I’m getting closer to the time when I won’t be up every day in the early AM, and I havn’t written too many posts during that time period anyway. The website is named hidden node however, so I’m thinking the theme should have to do with the site.

Other news, my Shadowrun book delivery arrived today. Awesomeness.

Justin

A bit of a brief post but…

As the title suggests so it is true.

The video here is Lit Fuse Film’s Latest, Jill’s Song.

It’s a stirring then eventually disturbing piece. Mostly monologue set to music that sets you up for one piece of emotion then will slap you across the face as it drops the other shoe.A little background. Lit Fuse Films is a machinima studio house that uses a video game to produce their films. They use primarily Garry’s Mod, a modification program for Half-Life 2’s Source Game Engine. G-Mod, as it is often called, provides interfaces for gamers in a sandbox style environment. Gamers can roleplay, deathmatch, create scenes, animate ragdolls, etc. It’s a fun interactive tool for the Source Game Engine.

Lit Fuse Films has produced a number of excellent titles from War Of The Servers, a retelling of H.G. Wells’ novel War of the Worlds, to the musical piece Ignis Solus, in additional to several comedy pieces. In addition to Machinimation videos created with Garry’s Mod, Lit Fuse Film also provides unique and original music for their works. Many of their songs really present the feel of their videos and the style of Lars Erik Fjosne is amazing.

Enjoy the video. Check out the other content from Lit Fuse Films. They’re amazing talents of their craft.

Justin

So today I toggled all of my friends on twitter to have device activation. Well, not all of them, but the ones I have mutual following with and such. Things I learned were that after 5 TXT’s, twitter constantly suggested I stopped getting updated from Tee Morris, but only once suggested I stopped getting updates from Indiana Jim. Go figure. No body else got a shut off suggestion. I also noticed something really cool about internet folks. I love all the nicknames people give their children when talking about them online. It’s very cool the amount of creative names I’ve seen from podcasters and various folks.

Beyond that, I will be setting most of the people back to normal updates. It was cool seeing some of the conversations but since I don’t have a number of people followed yet, I do see a ton of half conversations and that was a little confusing.

Experiment over. Please flip the tape to the other side.

Justin

It’s been about two weeks since I made an actual post. The Tweets are short and sweet but they don’t really provide a ton of substance.

What I’m busy doing:

1) Second Life production has increased (although not today). Working on projects specifically for RFyre growth, and maybe something I can sell for myself.

2) I have GTA4. It’s nice having a game for the 360 that everyone else just got so there’s a lot of interest amongst my friends.

3) I’m getting Shadowrun stuff ready for some RP sessions maybe this summer. Pablo seems interested. So does Denise but I’m not sure how much longer she’ll be in town.

4) I’m reading  more, and exercising more. Both good things. Weight isn’t coming off too fast yet but it’s only been a week so all things in time.

5) I’m looking around at new computer hardware (like a headset) and debating price versus using my debit card.

Next time, a post without a list maybe?

Justin

Okay, first, To Do List review:

• Research more Open Simulator Content
  • Sort of doing. Talking to some people
• Create a Splash page for www.hiddennode.com
  • Ha hah, no, havn’t done it yet. This Saturday evening or Sunday
• find or make a theme for it’s early.
  • Ditto. I’ll try to make them match in some manner. Tinker with HTML and all that
• finish at least one of the library books
  • Grumble… no either. Saturday and Sunday, before and after the coding work.
  • I will read some tomorrow before work though, promise to myself
• read at least half of one of the fiction books
  • Also no. I’ll read alittle tonight of Infection though.

    Speaking of Infection, I’m going to either buy a copy for my local library next month or the month afterwards. I need to find out what the policy is for buying books. I’d like to get people here in the Pasco Country area interested, and what better way than to buy them a copy for the local library?

    Been building heavily in SL lately (see Twitter links for proof).  I think I’m finally getting out of my funk.  Or more exactly I’m in a gaming funk while the SL is drawing me back. The creation of Patty’s home was just kind of spur of the moment after building somethings for House of RFyre. I’m sure the building will be long lasting as we go through the island redux project.

    Real Life notes, I’ve got a project in mind. I’ve been meaning to send my Nephew’s christmas/birthday/something present off for a few months now. I just havn’t gotten around to doing it and right now I’m waiting on David getting me the address to send it to. I think I’m just going to give up and send it to my grandmother’s and he can pick it up there. Beyond that, I’m considering a bit of a care package project. I’m going to take some video and photos of the things around my life right now. Yes, phone video. It’ll look shitty but I don’t care. If they want better they can buy me a camcorder. Anyway, I’m going to talk about my life, show off places in my life, and show off people in my life.  Show off what I’m doing, and just try to give a feel how things are for me right now. I also need to setup a DVD or two for each of my brothers with just various things of interest to me. A big digital care package if you would.

    I think it’s a good idea.

Justin

• Research more Open Simulator Content
• Create a Splash page for www.hiddennode.com
• find or make a theme for it’s early.
• finish at least one of the library books
• read at least half of one of the fiction books

    I spent the last few days thinking things over. Not completely yet, but I have been putting some pieces of the puzzle together. Key notes of interest include going back to my roots as far as writing goes. I know for a long time I found inspiration from song. I would hear a song of any length and come up with a story inspired by it. Mind you, this wasn’t a story about the song’s story, just inspired by it. Example includes a story inspired by Comfortably Numb from Pink Floyd’s The Wall that has nothing to do with comatose fictional singers. In that line of thinking, I’m pondering a few songs and the stories they make me think about. I wonder if that’s what has hurt me in the past with my writing. I’d start a chapter one with a song inspiring it, but I never find a song for chapter two. I need to expierment and try that out.

Brief post. One quick update, look for a new series I will be starting soon here. Maybe once a month, maybe bi weekly, maybe whenever I feel about it, but it will be called “it’s early presents…” in which I review something of interest to me. This could be a podcast, a novel, a game, a piece of tech hardware, a song, the list goes on. It’s whatever I want to review really. I’ll be doing it first on the featured podcast on my blog roll, 12 Volt Theater. It makes sense to do so since I’ve taken the time to add it to the blog roll. I think I’ll rename that catergory to “latest it’s early presents…” and just keep up the last ten things I have reviewed. Mental note, start making pages so I can have a back log of what I’ve reviewed.

Later folks,

Justin

    As of right now, this post is coming from my second computer, Twilight Chamber. You know how some people name their cars? How someone who hunts might name a gun? Well, I name my PC’s. I don’t give them what would be considered ‘human names,’ but I do give them names anyway. Really it’s only been the last two computers that have had names though, since they were the only computers I bought as opposed to my dad buying or putting together for me.

With that in mind, the first computer I named was Silent Chamber. That was this machine. Then this machine’s mind died. Poor hard drive. The other computer I normally use has a familiar name to most of you (I would assume if you came to visit my main blog), Hidden Node. That one was once my wife’s machine, but I resurrected it when it’s hard drive died too. This machine, formerly Silent Chamber, now lives again with a new (and much bigger) hard drive. I present Twilight Chamber. The core of the old PC, but now with a vast ability to absorb knowledge. Hooray for computer witch doctorin’ magic.

Tomorrow, once I get home from work, I will be stepping in uber computer geekdom, however, as my friend Dave will be assisting me in installing Linux. Ubuntu to be exact, not that I know what that means though. Still, I will be using it as a new tool to learn, and master. I’m not sure why I want to learn computer skills since I do plan on becoming a writer, not a computer tech, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a backup skill set.

Had a wonderful day today. Spent a lot of time with Patty at a good resturant, going shopping, and then getting ice cream. It was even better that I had to come home early for a Second Life business meeting. Once that was over I spent even more time with Patty, just hanging out (not counting the time spent checking this machine’s XP installation). Once I’m done here, going to spend the rest of my waking hours (should be half hour actually) with her before slipping off to sleep until this afternoon.

Oh Debbie, nice seeing you finally in Second Life. Get that new video card so you can enjoy it even more. It’s fun, addictive, and an amazing place. You’ll love it.

I’m off like a herd of turtles.

Justin

    I’m a gamer. Have been a gamer for close to 23 years now. I’ve forgotten more matches, stories, and adventures than most casual players will ever experience in my years. I’m not the best, far from the worse, and I always strive to have fun. Something about that has been changing over the last few years.

When I was a kid, I gamed with my three brothers. We played hours and hours of NES, PC, Sega, and eventually Play Station and X-Box games. Singleplayer, multiplayer, saved or fresh game, it didn’t matter. A lot of my childhood revolved around games. Not that I spent my time only in gaming, but there was a great deal spent around electronic interactive entertainment.

As a teenager and young(er) adult,  I still gamed a great deal, but I became more introduced to the true multi-player experience. Gaming with your buddies and family was fun but over time you learned them, you could tell their strategy, and for the most part there wasn’t as great of a challenge (Yes Alex, you still kept surprising me and I still say we were equals when we played the same games). It was still a blast to play with them, but for those who were only casual gamers, or at least casual in the genre of your choice, it wasn’t as challenging. Fun for sure, but you like to test yourself.

So steps in online gaming. Here you are open to a world of challengers and champions. Will your next opponent be a newer player who hasn’t learned the gaming system yet or will you face someone with less of a life than you? You could never tell and there was such pleasure in facing opponents that were your equal. The adrenaline, the comradery, and the joy of defeating odds where you really didn’t know where the coin would land. Such is the pleasure and addiction that is online gaming.

In the last year, I’ve drawn more away from single player gaming nearly completely. Sure there was the joy of Oblivion, but honestly I don’t enjoy it unless I’m sitting on Ventrillo listening to my friends chatter about their characters. I’ve drawn myself away from story and more into action. This worries me, in a way. especially since in the last (except for very recently) I have always drawn myself away from writing as often as I have. Interactive visual medium seems to have taken over a great deal of my leisure time. I still feel the urge to write, but when I do I tend to think in action games terms.

So what’s the point in all this? I’m not sure. I suppose it’s observation really. I know part of me wants to get away from all the gaming, yet at the same time I’m finding it hard to. When my friends are online, I want to hang out with them, after all, they are my social group really. I’ve a few friends offline here in Tampa, but the uprooting after the storm in ‘05 sent most of my close connections to internet online interaction. Personally, I don’t find this too bad, or at least I didn’t last year when I wasn’t working 5pm-1:30am. These days, working the night shift has pulled me away from my other friends too. Saturdays are my only social days for the most part.

Let me wrap this up before this becomes a “woe is me” post. I’m going to lay out some plans for my life in the coming weeks. The hard drive I mentioned yesterday is coming later tonight instead. I’m going to use that to start learning more useful skills centered around the PC. In addition to that, I’m going to try to take some Dragon Page and I Should Be Writing Advice and put butt into chair and start writing. I’m the only one providing excuses for why I can’t be writing.  I’m going to lay off the games more, at least I will try to. It’s not too easy because despite what people say, gaming is an addiction. That adrenaline high is powerful and exciting stuff and will hook you.

Gee, if I spent this time writing fiction instead of blogging I’d have another page or two. Aw nuts.

Justin