The Cube is Full of Bubbles

I'm not sure what will be in the middle of 22Cans Curiosity Cube and I don't think I actually care. 

"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end" - Ursula K. LeGuin

For those that don't know, and I know a fair few friends who don't have a clue about the project, Curiosity is the first of 22 projects/experiments from 22Cans, the company set up by Peter Molyneux. It hovers, 2001 monolith style in a white room that exists on the servers at 22Cans. At the time of writing (14th January 2013, at about 23:30) the Cube is 70 days old, with 159 layers removed. The current layer (a rather busy Christmas market at Winchester Cathedral) has 52,254,395 cubelets remaining. 

"Too often we are so preoccupied with the destination we forget the journey" - Anon

Mr Molyneux seems to be a man who teeters between works of crazy, and works of pure genius. Depending on how Curiosity pans out, I'm still not sure which side he is on that. After playing rather often the last few weeks, there is something rather humanising about the experiment; watching as little cubes pop off your screen knowing that another human is doing it, but that we will never know who that person is. Like the worlds biggest communal piece of bubble wrap. Slowly chipping away at the enormous cube is a cooperative effort, but barring a few people I know in the Real World, the chippers are anonymous.  I can't help be feel that the sketchy Facebook implementation is intentional, and all we are left with is tiny pixel toilet wall graffiti. Perhaps it is all a commentary on Social Media Games (pointless clicky clicky, I'm looking at you Zynga, you money grabbing pirate poopheads) 

"It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive" - CW Leadbeater

In various interviews that Molyneux has given in the last few weeks, he has hinted that there is more to this mythical cube that meets the eye. All of this data is going somewhere, something is crunching these numbers and looking at how each of us interacts with the cube. The data must flow... But what will we find out about the data; how the human collective can work together? How we still communicate, given such immense barriers? I'm interested as to what will be gleaned from this first experiment. Perhaps its all just a matter of perspective?

Real Life Sucks

It would be nice for my life not to go belly up every month or so. To give you an idea of the up and down nature of December; Cambridge and back to deal with a family death, Scotland and back to deal with direct family death, then Wales to celebrate the New Year with friends.

When we got home on the 4th January, I firmly told everyone that I was not going anywhere in the next month, or at least no more than about 45 minutes on the train. So sick of travelling this month.

But I'm back and full of writing beans, and interesting things! Oh yes! So bored of life messing up my schedule of life. I've also added a little donation button so that kind people can clicky and put a little towards me not starving. All good in the long run.

//Commlal

ZXX Review Lego LotR

My lovely other half bought me this for my birthday this year. A thoughtful gift since I love Lego, their games and Lord of the Rings. How was he supposed to know that it was a buggy bag o' shite!

I knew going in that there would be bugs, it is a Lego game after all. I played it most of its release weekend so I didn't hear about the game breaking glitches until later in the week. OK  to be fair it's not game breaking completely, more Achievement broken, which is just as serious a crime as game breaking in my eyes. I have now relegated it back to the shelf until TT decide to release a patch, which may be never. Is it just me or top releases getting buggier every year. Dear game producers out there, can you answer this for me? So it's a little ruined for me and this makes me sad as on the whole it's a fantastic game and a clever interpretation of the movies. Sam Gamgee smacking things on the head with a frying pan, and stomping up Isengard as Treebeard. Oh and the disco ball, how I love that.

Note to self: Get as ringtone for phone.

If the game wasn't buggy, I'd have 100% on my achievements and finsh it with a feeling of satisfaction, instead, I feel slightly used and dirty like a tissue. This makes me a little sad.

As a programmer, and as a human, I have an almost OCD obsession with perfection (which does not extend to spelling!) which means I won't move on with something unless it's up to my standards. A stupid thing to do as it leads to project destroying ruts, and I know perfection is impossible. Every time you think you have it, something else glitters slightly less perfect and the perfect thing drifts out of your grasp again. It's knowing when to let go when it's good enough but not too soon because it will be shit. Of course this does not apply to last minute uni essays, which if you know you know fuck all about it, go balls to the wall and just prey you pass.

No, that's not a metaphorr for my university career, but certainly reflects on my progression as a human and learning to let go and move on with projects. I'm having Sunday off after dealing with family stuff this week and barring some technical reading I shall be finishing Assassins Creed 2: revelations. On Monday I will be writing business plans and scouring the web for info.

Wish me luck!

//commlal

Back on the Ball

Well that was a mad few months, and not in a good way *sadface*

After working 65+ hour weeks and not getting much back from it (apart from a bit of money and some skills) I packed in my job yesterday.

I have too many plans and projects on the back burner and watching them fade made me sad, so I made a decision and went back to trying to get this blog and my other projects back on the go. Like pulling an old plaster from a wound I knew it was going to be tough, but I manned up and did it. It will not be easy from here on in, but when is anything in life just handed to you on a plate. I'm a woman trying to break into an old boys club, and from there I'll be tearing down established ideas and building anew.

Oh and I moved house. Still in Kent, like a stubborn beast it will not let me go. At least we live much closer to the station than before!

On the gaming front I've been playing AC:Revelations with a bit of Lego:LotR on the side. I've a rant brewing about that, something I need to write about in the next few days when I'm in sunny Cambridgeshire helping my pseudo sister with family stuff. I also have a backlog of HumbleBundle and IndieRoyal stuff to get through too.

But it certainly is nice to be back.

Remember, don't be a dick.
//commlal

Normal Service will Resume Shortly

This has been a busy few weeks! Mainly due to Diablo 3 coming out, thus I've been gaming a lot of the time, between doing house stuff and studying.

I'll have more interesting things to talk about in a couple of days.

Happy Towel Day!

Today is Towel Day, a day to celebrate the awesomeness of the works of Douglas Adams, specifically Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. It is a set of works that probably had a profound influence on me as I grew up.

It was probably the first adult book I read, although I have no idea how old I was, very little anyway as I was a very precocious reader. I remember listening repeatedly to the radio series and the audio books throughout my childhood. Thanks to my iPad and the interwebs I now have them all on audio book read by Stephen Fry(1st book) and Martin Freeman for me to listen to whenever I need. I've found its like aural Valium or security blanket. I should probably see if I can get the radio plays on the iPad too. 

It was the first ever DVD I bought, back in 2002, and I still own it (I'm watching it right this second as I write) I've lost count of how many times I've watched the TV series, a silly number I'm sure.

I even like the movie. Some die hard fans don't, I quite like it (Plus I really like Sam Rockwell) 

Not to drift too far from the point, I really love this set of stories. Here is a hoopy frood who knows where her towel is (me!)

Towel Day!
 Bugblatter Beast Style Head Covering.

Hot Day in Kent Style.

Mr Me and I are off to Bromley Churchill Theatre in June Hitch Hikers Live, which should be quite awesome! Now, lunchtime!

 Remember keep your towel with you and guard it with your life!

/Commlal

Two more from Sci Fi London

Shuffle

Caught this after watching the Last Push, switching from hard sci fi to soft sci fi. This is a beautifully shot movie staring T.J. Thyne (plays the fantastic Dr Hodgins in Bones) Each morning he wakes up a different age. Yesterday he was 26, the day before he was 8. One day he was 92. He wants off this mental merry-go-round, but he needs to help someone. Who?

It is a fantastic movie, as if Memento and Its a Wonderful Live had a baby, and the Twilight Zone was its godfather. I just can't find fault with it (except it made me cry buckets in the cinema).  Lovell and Grace are such lovely characters and you can really feel the anguish, pain and love in Thyne's acting. The clever writing really keeps you on your toes, the clues to the end are all there at the start. Kurt Kuenne is a multi-talented genius, as he did the music, production, editing and wrote the whole thing. This is certainly on my "must buy" list following the festival. Here's a trailer for it.

Kurt Kuenne also directed the lovely short film Validation. If you haven't seen it, here it is!

Best sixteen minutes on YouTube.

Anyway, this is my pick of the year, and they were all good movies. It's rare to have a good character based sci fi movie. Go find it now, as its never going to see a big release (stupid stupid Hollywood) but is well worth the time.


The Captains.

I'm sad I missed the first 15 minutes due to London trains being shonky. After my mystery tour of the underground I gotto the cinema anyways, and since it's a documentary movie, it won't do any harm. The Shat wrote and directed this and interviews all the Star Trek captains. It's very interesting and insightful. The sacrifice that they made.to make on of my favourite shows. Several broken marriages and the typecasting. Patrick Stewart's sections are quite touching. I warn you though, if you are a DS9 fan, you are never going to see Sisko the same way again. Avert Brooks is a total space cadet, I want to know what drugs he is taking.

The promo stuff features Shat in a Box, funny stuff.

There's a little more I need to cover about Sci Fi London, but not tonight, I'm too sleepy.

/Commlal