Archive for January 2008

Justification

I get a ridiculous amount of spam on a daily basis, and I’ve no idea why. It’s as if I once committed fraud as someone well-known for having a tiny penis, and now I’m paying the consequences.

I do like to think that during the last 20 years of global internet spam, at least one man has been dumped by his girlfriend for having too small a penis, then spent a month and two days feeling suicidal over his emotional loss and physical inadequacy, then checked his Hotmail one day and read an e-mail with the subject title “Make New Wild Times with Your New Big Phallus”, which led him to a genuine way of increasing the size of his penis, which then somehow actually enabled him to have New Wild Times with someone he subsequently met at a party, who eventually became the everlasting love of his life and the saviour of his will to live.

Knowing this would make me feel so much better about the situation. As things currently stand, I remain slightly miffed.

January 25th, 2008 | Uncategorized | Tags: | 0 Comments

Music Information Graphics

Good: Royksopp – Remind Me

Good and wierd: Plaid – Itsu:

January 20th, 2008 | Uncategorized | Tags: | 0 Comments

The Moral Cost of Videogames

An interesting short article by an ex-Edge writer, Matthew Devereux, voicing a concern about the fundamental nature and recurring themes of many videogames:

“Take, for instance, the idea of ruthless competition, that for every winner there are necessarily losers. Regardless of what game you’re playing, the message is almost always the same: Do whatever it takes to win, even at the expense of everyone else.

Imagine if that were the moral of every movie and TV show you ever watched. Would the world be a better or worse place? Would you let your children play a game that promoted such a dog-eat-dog mentality?

Fundamentally, most games operate within a moral framework: good versus evil (or vice versa). But what games conspicuously lack is moral consequence. Once you’ve killed someone, stolen something, or blown up a building, that’s usually the end of it â€“ you’ll rarely get to see the emotional impact of your actions on the characters around you.

Every bit of mayhem becomes just another item on a video-game to-do list. Games ignore moral consequence and emotional nuance to focus on the purely visceral. There are only two types of decisions you can really make: the strategically correct one or the strategically incorrect one. There is no “right” or “wrong” â€“ only success or failure.

Unbridled competition combined with no moral consequence eventually leads to a lack of compassion. And without compassion, humanity is lost.”

Read the whole thing here.

January 13th, 2008 | Uncategorized | Tags: games | 0 Comments

2008

Happy new year. I hope you had both a good 2007, and a good new year’s eve. If you did, good for you. If your 2007 was a bit rubbish, then I hope 2008 is better for you. If your new year’s eve was a bit rubbish, then I hope you realise you’re not the only one, and it doesn’t really matter anyway.

Resolutions for 2008? Well.

Eat better. Eat less meals too late at night. Don’t finish massive meals just because I feel like I should. Don’t cook such massive meals in the first place. Exercise properly, at least once a week. Watch 300 for motivation.

Work on a cool game project. Make an interesting music video. Take some photos that deserve to be framed. Write more often, more impulsively, and at a faster rate. Get a drum kit and hit it with sticks.

Pass my driving test. Meet new and interesting people. Do more of the things I keep saying I’ll do. Spend more time constructively, and less of it doing nothing.

Smile more. Work harder. Loosen up. Be great.

January 3rd, 2008 | Uncategorized | Tags: | 0 Comments