A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

Called in to help replace a missing cameraperson on last night's Rock Candy Show shoot, and I'm very glad I went. The music was good and the shoot went pretty well, even though there were a few flubs filming the latter and louder band. There was also a small challenge in that the bassist's preferred stance had him facing the drummer instead of the mics, making him harder to frame up, but I think we did OK. I told him after the show that he reminded me of Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, and he told me about his uncle who preferred to teach Tai Chi while stoned.

It was damn nice to be bought beer after a SCAT shoot, for a change. I say with a straight face that the most expensive part of the Gameshelf has been the obligatory round for the cast & crew after each shoot, and the two we did recently really stung since they had big casts and also me being flat broke. No regrets, though, and I'll be happier to do it next time because I have some money now.

The show's new sound guy also helps produce the weekly Gamer's Hell podcast, so had some interesting conversations there, too. I also got some surprise accolades about Jmac's Arcade from the rest of the crew, who had discovered it on their own. One of them is another Massachusetts native (a surprisingly rare creature in the circles I travel) and caught some of the South Shore references I put in. Very nice.

Also learned about some SCATtish halloween events I will post about in the near future.

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I've forgotten how terribly noisy an office is. Not so much noisy as full of people making stupid noises. I feel like a microsphinctered enos for getting upset at things like people who have Butthead-style laughter or who shuffle their feet as they walk, but this and so much more drive me batty anyway. Thank gord for Noise. Maybe I should buy some phat earphones to get the full Noise experience; I'm using it with my iPod earbuds right now.

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I have a terrific idea for a Jmac's Arcade title graphic, but I'll need some props and time to pull it off. Maybe this weekend. I'll also need some Photoshoppage, and since I don't have a copy of that program this in an issue. Also, I don't know how to do the photo manipulation I want to do, but I assume it's possible. Once I obtain a suitable source image I very well may use this forum to ask you-my-adoring-public for help.

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For whatever reason I have a few emails about circa-2000-era projects that I need to respond to. A guy I used to know on MUDs long ago - though I'm not sure he recognizes my real name - wrote me about ComicsML, and a student researcher in the UK wrote me about IF. I'm happy to reply, though I imagine he's probably written a bunch of people if he's written me, because while I've made a couple of web pages on the topic, as well as a silly game, I'm certainly not the first Google hit you'll get.

Bill Burkett just mailed me -- he found the silly con report I wrote that mentioned his talk (among many other things) from the XML 2000 Conference, over a year ago. He just wanted to express amusement, and say hi.

How wonderfully random... I actually know very little about this fellow or what he does, but still.

That reminds me: I got a call last week from a reporter who was interested in ComicsML. We gabbed for more than an hour about that and other cool XML applications, and I found myself plugging the book to the media for the first time. And caring how my name was spelled. (And Erik's.)

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Good timing: ORA is publishing a book about SVG just as we're sending The Book off to production, and SVG is something that factors in greatly with two big projects I can't wait to dive into full-time for a while: ComicsML, and MIGS (the game system). Tasty stuff!