Happy Birthday, Naomi!
You are 15 months old today, and there’s one question on your mind:
“Where’s my breakfast?”
Projected Projects
Here’s my answer to the Open Question about Arts & Crafts:
Aside from craft projects that were part of the elementary school curriculum, such as hooking rugs and doing pressed copper etchings, I haven’t been one for arts and crafts. This is not to say that I haven’t made use of a hot glue gun from time to time.
The closest I ever came to arts and crafts work was when I started playing CCGs, and a I struggled with the aesthetic and functional requirements of creating the perfect travelling deck box. You see, I usually carried around at least six decks, along with the assorted bits of dice and markers. A standard card box could hold six decks easily, but is the same general shape and weight as a brick, which never fit well into whatever courier bag I was using at the time.
So, I’d experiment with boxes from different sources, with trying to see how many card boxes I could fit into an empty videotape box (that was fun, actually), and, of course, with all the florid decorations that come from cutting out the artwork from playing cards and gluing them to the box…further corroborating the notion that I was a hopeless geek.
(Now, I have my blog to get that message across. [grin])
I’ve found myself thinking about an upcoming craft project over the last year, and I’ve even gone so far as to search the mighty interweb to find a method for achieving this goal.
It is, I believe, an utter waste of time.
It would also be a lot of fun.
I want to make a book safe. You know, one of those hollow books that you can hide things in, like the Maltese Falcon, or a rock hammer when you have to dig your way out of Shawshank prison.
I’d never be able to hide anything in the book safe (if it ever got made) because I’d keep showing it off to people. “Hey, look where I keep the cool rocks I found at the park while digging up worms with Ben and Naomi!”
I have a couple of large hardbound books that would fit the bill: a cheesy mail-order Bible of the Bimillenium that I received as a gift from the mail-order psychic advice company I used to work for is a likely candidate, but it feels a tad sacrilegious. Maybe a ratty History of Comics that I picked up at a garage sale would work better.
Hey, I know…maybe I should get a smaller hardback – like a dictionary – and bring it to the office. I could hide CDs…or a pair of CCG decks!
(You see, this is why I shouldn’t get involved with arts and crafts).
“Look at me, Shrek! I’m sexy!”
It’s time for a new look.
What do you think?
Update 1: The first section of my blogroll (titled, appropriately, “Blogroll”) no longer seems to appear as a bulletted list, but every other section of my blogroll does. What gives?
Update 2: The disappearing blogroll is probably due to my use of Widgets to configure the sidebars. Every time this page is loaded, my server has to reprocess the widget functions and, I guess the poor thing just runs out of gas or cache space. I’ve disabled the widgets and gone back to relatively hard-coded sidebars. This isn’t a problem, because I don’t do much customization work anyway.
Back on Time
Finally, my favourite watch is back from the repair shop. All the teeth marks on the band are still intact, though a little shiner after the cleaning.
Now, if I can just keep Naomi from throwing the watch on the floor, it’ll last a little while longer.
Open Question: Craft Time
Here’s the Open Question for January:
“Have you ever dabbled in arts & crafts projects around the house? Have you picked up knitting needles, made your paper (or beer), scrapbooking, or any similar activities requiring either a glue gun or a trip to the store to buy a glue gun? What have you done? Why did you do it? What would you like to do? Why haven’t you?”
Leave your answers or links in the comments below. I’ll post my answers tomorrow.
Good Luck, Brian!
Cool beans! My cousin Brian Traynor is a contestant on Deal or No Deal Canada!
He’ll be cheered on by his mother and sisters (my aunt Judy and cousins Jennifer and Alison).
It’s weird to think that the first time I’ll see them all together in more than eight years will be on a television game show. As family reunions go, it’s pretty darn memorable.
I’ll be cheering on from home. Good luck, Brian! Big money! No Whammies! (Oh, wait. That’s a different show.)
Ella, Elle L’a
I’ve just upgraded Eventually Clever to WordPress 2.1 a.k.a “Ella”.
This was by far the smoothest upgrade of all the Wordpress versions, though that might just have something to do with the fact that we upraded the firmware on our wireless router to achieve greater stability for high-volume uploads.
Anyway, one blog install down, five to go…
Movie Time!
Accepted
Like Bring It On, American Pie and Real Genius, this is one smart “dumb teenage comedy”. Justin Long plays an affable college reject who creates his own fake school. The fun begins when his alma mater attracts a horde of student, and the fake university suddenly becomes a real education.
Batman Begins
A good movie still reveals new approaches to the story after repeated viewings. This time, I looked at Bruce Wayne as an orphan choosing among competing mentors for direction – Thomas Wayne, Alfred, Lucius Fox, Ducard, Falcone – only to strike out on his own and inspire others, like Gordon.
The Illusionist
A satisfying period mystery about a magician who returns to Vienna to reunite with his lost love. The Illusionist knows how to play to his audience, and he has no more appreciative or adversarial an audience than the Chief of Police. The real trick isn’t what appears on the stage.
Scoop
Now that Woody Allen is too old to appear as the neurotic lead, he casts proxy actors to hem and haw onscreen. Watching Scarlett Johansson channel Woody Allen (while he plays her magician mentor) is …wrong…and weirdly entertaining. There’s a murder, and a mystery that feels inverted from Match Point.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
The first half of the film, where the Ordinary Joe meets G-Girl in her civilian guise is funny, and his discovery of her superhero identity is even funnier; the second half tries to be frantic and funny, but fails – despite the scorned G-Girl throwing a shark at her ex.
Talladega Nights The Legend of Ricky Bobby
Sacha Baron Cohen tries to race off with this movie as Jean Girard, the existentialist gay French Formula One driver, but Will Ferrell, Leslie Bibb and Gary Cole are in hot pursuit. The final race is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a sports comedy since the Dodgeball finale. Hilarious.
C’est vrai, je regarde les films français et en français
Bon Cop/Bad Cop
I watched Monsoon Wedding, saw how the characters mixed English and Hindi effortlessly and thought to myself: “This is how a Montreal film should be.” Well, here it is. The mixed French / English dialogue, attitudes and comedy sound like ordinary life in the city. Minus the explosions, of course.
OSS 117 Le Caire, Nid d’Espions
Jean Dujardin plays the suave, chauvinistic and oblivious French secret agent in this comedy set in – and shot in the style of – 1955 spy movies. How oblivious is he? On a mission to Egypt, he memorizes hieroglyphics as the native language…but not Arabic! Silly, but not parodic.
2006 Montreal International Game Summit: The Review
Sure, I’ve already posted my quick thoughts about the 2006 Montreal International Game Summit, but I’ve been meaning to write up a slightly more in-depth series of session reports.
While all the sessions I attended gave me something to think about, what impressed me most what that nearly every speaker addressed the issues of gameplay and game design from a point of view other than the gamer’s perspective. The inter-disciplinary approach broadens the ways we can think about the place and function of games in society and the individual.
Plus, most of the speakers referred to books, games or websites that I immediately decided to add to my reading lists. I’ve summarized them here:
Books
Oxford History of Boardgames, by David Parlett
The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games, by Margaret Hofer
Patterns in Game Design, by Staffan Bjork, Jussi Holopainen
The Civilizing Process, by Norbert Elias
Killing Monsters, by Gerard Jones
21st Century Game Design, by Chris Bateman
Patterns of Play, by Roger Callois
Four Fun Keys, by Lazzaro
Sites
Game Design Patterns
Ken Perlin’s experiments at NYU Media Lab
Game Accessibility
Chris Bateman’s blog
Cinematic Game Design
Games
Call of Cthulhu for PC
Laser Squad Nemesis (yes, Jon, I know you’ve been telling me about this for ages. [grin])
Okami for PS2
Play With Fire
There’s lots more to read after the break.