Avoision

The name might not actually exist, but the game is suprisingly intense and fun.

My first time around I got 1375

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I'm a PC.

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Bob Ross, master of happiness.

I have tried to paint. I was forced to. I had to paint a series of things for a very torturous class named 2D Art. I hated it with a passion. I hate paint, plain and simple, due to the fact that there is no eraser, no hide-able layers, no back or undo button. I just can't stand it. I also am horrible at it, as you might guess.

That is not to say that I don't like paintings, or painters. I absolutely adore well painted drawings, I just can't bring myself to even consider doing it.

With that said, I was directed to a series of Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting episodes ("happy trees" guy) that had been amassed on YouTube. I watched a couple of them, and I found myself simultaneously blown away with the simplicity and ease with which he creates these paintings, and disgusted with how pathetic it makes my attempts seem.

I always remember laying on the floor as a youngster, amazed at how flawlessly and easily this big hairy man paints the boughs of trees so happily, and be inspired to work my own creative genuis, in my own way, in legos. Maybe he's part of the reason that I've got my own bodily hair collection these days...

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What do you do with Bad Dice?

Well, you bury them, of course.

Treasure Tables chronicles the life and death of a set of supposedly horrendous dice that a particular RPG gamer had gotten fed up with.

Personally, I don't believe that any reasonably well-made dice can have "bad mojo" or anything like that, but I have on occassion been faced with a series of very bad rolls and have wanted to destroy the dice that had been responsible for them. If you've ever played a die based game, I'm sure you have had a similar experience.

This also reminds me that I very much need to get my hands on some real dice, as right now all I have is a puny set of 10, nowhere near enough for real gameplay. Maybe I should look into some high end dice for next year...

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What I'm looking at today

In an effort to get my mind into a more productive state, I have been perusing some informational archives and have come up with a couple of great resources for web design and construction.

Frist off, in an effort to familiarize myself with the world of server-side scripting, I've invested a small amount of time in some PHP tutorial videos that will hopefully spark a larger landslide of learning. Any web designer worth their salt has to at least know how a server-side language works, even if they can't write elegant functions with it.

In that same vein, it is extremely useful to familiarize myself with the ever-evolving do's and dont's of the web design world. In short, that means keeping up with the myriad top 10 and 20 lists of good and bad habits of web design, of which there is a quite thorough specimen at NetMag

And last and least, fun netgames to burn away minutes while you're waiting for sites to load or your massive web project to upload onto a server.

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Smart's roadster

The image above is my rendition of the Smart Roadster that is available in europe.

You might remember the couple of posts that I've put up that are similar to this; the Saturn Sky, and the Dodge Sling Shot posts.

Well, I just can't help myself, the idea of a compact little top-down sports car gets me all riled up. There's something about the idea of efficient fun driving that appeals to me, something that says "hey, you can be a sporty car and still be efficient." I just start salivating every time I see something like this, and with Smart coming to the USA soon, I can only hope that they bring their roadster with them.

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Hyanide Hobbes.

First:



I hate the idea of having a plethora of off-road vehicles in my home of the future, and was utterly amazed when I saw the Hyanide. There's a video as well on that site that you should view, it shows the underlying structure of the off-road monster.

Second:



Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic of all time, there has never been a strip that has been more topical, more intelligent, or more funny. ProgressiveBoink.com has put together some of the best strips and stoylines that Watterson ever produced, it's worth a look.

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MAKE / Organic / Odd Cars.

Make Magazine's blog has begun hosting a weekly video broadcast available free on their servers. The idea is to have one project each week that you can do during the weekend, I think it's genius and fantastic.


Briefly: Organic food demand outstrips supply. We truly are a nation of environmentalists, if only we were given the ability to be.


Ran across a nice site documents a few of the more out-there designs that have rolled across the concept floor, from motorcycles to boats to cars to everything inbetween!

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Three amazing videos, brought to you by Google.

How to make a beat



Super Monk



E-Mail Cartoon

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Modular Housing

I've always found the idea of a very small very portable living space quite intriguing. Perhaps that's why I like camping so much. In any case, Studio 804 and Edgar Blazona's site both advocate the interesting and attractive small modular homes that they have crafted.

While neat, I'd still rather just live out of a van and tool around to campsites for a few years as opposed to invest in a stationary modular home. I guess that ability comes from a life near rural america, whereas most people have to cope with a lack of funds and space, which would make modular dwellings quite attractive.

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Why the crap not?

I've long wondered why companies have deigned to create self-driving cars, seeing as how the technology has been within our reach for a decade or more. Computer-controlled cars would begin the transition of the nation's freeways from dangerous funnels infested with adolescent maturity levels to a form of highly organized mass-transit.

Well, Volkswagen is on the ball with a truly 100% self driving Golf that it is using for testing at one of its laboratories.



The car uses a combination of radar sensors, IR, video and precise GPS locator technology to shoot around courses at breakneck speed.

On one hand I'm happy that the technology is being showcased, on the other, I'm afraid of what Uncle Sam would be capable of with a national ID card and completely regulated computerized personal transportation.

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