The Monday Post: Arithmetic Horrors

So I didn't exactly post last week and I have only one thing to say to that fact: It's near the end of the semester and a LOT of classes are ramping up for that end work-wise. In other words, stress. And going a little insane with mathematics as well.

The Monday Post: Nope

Sorry, have too much to do, and completely forgot about the post this week. Shit, I've had so little time I'm doing my laundry right now (a boon for having a 24hr laundry room on campus). See you guys next week.

The Monday Post: Daytime at Dark

So it's early-to-mid summer here in Arizona now and we've gotten to the point where we see high 90s to low 100s during the night. For those having heatwaves, even ones in the national news, may I kindly ask you to go away and kindly take your pansy whining with you.

The Monday Post: Clang, thud?

I just saw a post reminding me about the Kickstarter campaign by one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson. The elevator pitch is he's going to create a game and framework for sword fighting games the way that racing games have their own peripherals. Fine controlled motion capture and swords. How can that go wrong?

The Monday Post: D&D Dice Probabilities

So I was playing my weekly game this week of Dungeons and Dragons when I was presented a rather odd opportunity for my character: I Cleric was (literally) flying overhead of my character about 30 feet (thanks to a potion of flight) and the best my fighter could think of to do was throw his 2-Handed Bastard sword up like a spear to try to hit the cleric. I needed a natural 20 to hit. I got an 18. I missed, but not by much.

The Monday Post: Programmer's Mind II - "Is A" vs. "Has A"

I had this planned out in my head for weeks. See, I've taken to looking at some old code for games others have written and I actually got into a stonewalling argument when trying to get around to fixing it.

The Monday Post: Stress Relief D&D

Long post ahead!

The Monday Post: What it's like to be a programmer

Ok so I'm a bit off on my timing for a Monday post. I'm knee deep in coding/homework and such. So here's a quick look into the mind of a programmer:

The Monday Post: Big Huge's Big Layoffs

 So, less than 2 years ago I made this post, and more importantly took these two photos:

This was my first taste of what was to become... well let me tell you what happened this week. Baseball player Curt Schilling's 38 Studios and developer Big Huge Games shut their doors. Just... *slam*, you're gone, GTFO. Curt himself was seen driving off, box in the passenger seat of his BMW. Sadly, the shuttered employees (all 400 or so) aren't so lucky.

I have to sit back here for a moment, and realize I could be one of them in the future. BHG and 38 were paid quite a bit by Rhode Island to move there, but in the end they couldn't pay back that loan. All for making a game that I had high hopes for, but ultimately failed to deliver*.

Best wishes to the families of those laid off. Best of luck for myself to have a backup plan, a fall back plan, and backup contingencies for each. I hope.


*Before you question my thoughts, the only way to that game could have broken even would have been a 90+ rating. The 6.0 user score (at the time of this writing) is just the final nail in the coffin.

The Universe and I

I wrote this a few days ago, and I have no idea where it was going or even why I wrote it. I figured I'd post it so it gets out of my system.