Sound Me

For a video project at work we hired a professional narrator and I got to tag along to the studio. It was really interesting to see how it's done. The picture isn't very good, but you can see Tom, the narrator, in the sound proof booth in front a microphone. Interesting thing about Tom is that he's a narrator who's also blind.

I'm so connected to visual things, it was interesting to hear him work, and talk with him. You could almost "see" the different way in which he lives. He's good at what he does, and can do things on the fly, remembering complex and strange phrases without much added effort.

I'm Cool with Proof

I hit 1600 gamerscore (Xbox 360), aka Nerd Points, last night when I beat Crackdown and with some additional help from Geometry Wars 2.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is pretty dang fun. I had tried the first one in demo form and didn't connect with it, though friends were telling me it was an awesome game. A number of the podcasts I listen too all seem to praise it so I tried it again with my 5 year old last night. Maybe it was his genuine excitement that helped me, but I'm drawn in. I spent about 2 hrs trying to reach/beat my friends top score before giving up for the night.

I think I know where my piece of mind is going (to Microsoft).

Busy Enough

As if I wasn't already busy enough, I won/signed up for a membership in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a speech club, I think that's the easiest way to explain it. It's at work, which makes it somewhat convenient. Its intent is to help people develop their speaking skills, and even some leadership skills. I hope to do both. I've been in the group for a couple months now, I even won some "impromptu speaking" awards.

On Thursday I had my first speech, the Ice Breaker. It went really well. I presented with a Open Office Powerpoint with pictures and bullets about myself and my filmmaking background. The evaluation said I did really well with a few exceptions: I should be more active with my hands and not keep them behind my back, I should get out from behind the podium (a problem of the room and the projection system makes this hard and was noted), and watch for crutch words like ahh, umm, etc.

All in all, for the amount of preparation and practice (next to none) I think I did really well.

Confucius Says

I just found this and thought it was brilliant enough to remember.

If your plan is for one year, plant rice;
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees;
If your plan is for a hundred years,
Educate children.' Confucius

Modeling a Minivan

For my class GSP 260 the assignment was to make some models. I went a little overboard here, and put a lot of time into making a minivan. It's game ready: low polygon count with one composite texture.

Giddy like a Geek

As my friends and family know, I've gone gonzo for audio casts (I hate calling them pod casts, so note that so you know what I'm really referring to.) I listen to about 8 casts about video games. I listen to them on my daily drive, which is about an hour a day, plus some at work or at home if I can manage. I really enjoy listening, its easier than reading. The ones I like the most are more prone to comedy or goofy wit, but that correlates to almost all of them. Anyway, today at work I found myself half listening to some brilliant diatribe, a thought that corresponded much with my own, in fact it was my own.

About a week ago I found myself overly interested in one particular debate. To the point of interest where I e-mailed them my thoughts/experience. I didn't think much of it because time passed and I listed to many a cast in between, but come the next update of this particular cast, after I had forgotten my previous message, I heard my own thoughts read aloud.

Now this isn't something to pat myself on the back about. Its no major accomplishment or anything, but I still found myself giddy with happiness. But in the most geeky way I could think of, I wanted a ham sandwich (that's a reference only the hosts or listeners of this cast would understand).

Here's the cast if you care to hear: http://www.videogameshow.org/news_item.php?id=10528 My e-mail is read at about 22 minutes; I'm gr8rdad. Granted it ain't much, its not resume material, but it put a huge smile on my face.

E3, Isn't it Mandetory that I Blog About it?

Actually, I don't care to write about E3. There are enough bloggers, game enthusiasts, fanboys and "journalists" out there covering every minute from every conceivable, repetitive angle. No, I don't really want to write about E3. Well at least not directly.

What I will say is that the coverage on G4 has been really interesting. I don't bother with the commentary. I can't stand Morgan Webb, she drives me crazy but I wont get into the hosts since I didn't watch them blather other than in fast motion forward. I've watched the Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony keynotes, which were really interesting. Well, Microsoft and Sony's were anyway.

Back to School

July forth ended with bangs, and the weekend closed out with my Summer session A classes starting up Tomorrow (Monday, July 7th 2008). First off, my grades for my last classes were posted. I got 100% on the final in math so that secured my A (I was slightly worried because I missed a quiz so I spent most of the class crawling back up from a B). I got 98% on the final in my other class (which I've already forgotten what it was) though I only needed about 20% to get the A.

For my classes now, I've already been reading the books for GSP 260. The Art of the Game is a really great book so far. It really fits with my thoughts and interests and looks to be rewarding in future chapters. I don't know why I didn't already own this book. The other book, The Complete Guide to Game Audio is starting off a real snooze. I'm trying not to be down on it because I realize how much trouble I have with audio (I have very little sense of rhythm, and can't "see" the layers in music, let alone tell you what instruments are being used). But this book is coming across badly for me. I've read dozens of books on film making, storyboarding, photography, graphics, etc., some good and some bad. The bad ones read similar to this one. Advice from a guy who has had minor successes in the business, but ultimately is no Spielberg. I'm giving it a shot though, hoping that the intro chapters aren't indicative of the overall take-away.

I've looked over GSP-260's assignment syllabus whatever and it looks like there is going to be a crazy-strange amount of work. I'm slightly disappointed in the assignment approach because its basically asking you to design a game of your choice, so long as it has 3d characters, 3d objects and levels. Most of my ideas, the ideas I think aren't just like "GTA but in Hawaii", aren't necessarily 3D and may not have "characters" perse. Of course, I guess I'll just take one of my clone ideas with a twist and expand on it. Minivan nights is my choice, but we'll see with more time into the class.

The math class, GSP 320, looks like it should be a breeze. This time I'll make sure not to miss any quizzes or assignments. I've already done the first week assignment and technically classes don't even start until Monday.