Author Archives: Autumn

Me = Geek

Working where I am working, on what I am working on, has clearly done something odd to my wiring. Specifically, over the past two weeks I’ve deliberately been researching the world of casual gaming, which has in turn led me to reading and talking about the subject to people. I’ve been making private posts to myself, which I will now collect here for your amusement.

May 4:

9:47: I can’t believe I’m actually contemplating buying a DS just so I can mess about with this game and others (read: things that make me think, involve words or self-exploration) in development when they’re released. I’m hoping it’s a positive trend and I would be able to play others in the future. I’ll try to find one secondhand. It probably qualifies as a tax write-off as job-related equipment too, now that I think of it. Hmm.

9:49: Good lord — you can read ebooks on a DS, watch movies with the right adaptors — wow. Not quite as use-specific as I thought. More of a chance I’d use it.

May 6:

12:47: Blade lent me his DS Lite to mess around with. This is very useable indeed.

8:22: Did my research on eBay, bid on a used original DS that has a broken hinge but otherwise works perfectly. Ended up winning it, too. Including shipping, I’m paying about forty dollars for it. Ha. Even if I never use it after playing it a few times over the summer, that’s no more expensive than two CDs, or three and a half trips to the movies.

Good gods — I own a handheld gaming system. Who am I, and where did the real me go? This is completely unlike me. I blame the workplace.

May 7:

13:27: I told Scott as we walked back from lunch that I bought a secondhand DS yesterday. He stepped sideways in surprise and beamed, then put his arm around me and said, “That’s awesome! Congratulations! Now I can bring mine and we can play together at lunch!” It was very cute, and really made me feel like a kid again.

May 9:

There is a package for me at the post office!

May 10:

3:15: Scott and I have been IMing back and forth about music games for the DS. There’s a NA version of M-06 coming out next month, Jam Sessions, which is not a exactly game but more of a music work package to recognise chords and mess about with composition, and I’ll definitely be picking that one up. There are more, too. And he’s pointed me towards review sites and othe nifty places. I am being enabled.

8:15: Got home and the package was waiting for me on the kitchen table. I opened it and pulled my very own DS out. It’s blue. It is mine. It was even all charged up. I slipped in one of the games Blade lent me, and voila, it’s functional. Liam finds it fascinating, and figured out immediately how to move my stylus hand to make the characters walk around.

Here is my new toy:

My new toy, May 11 2007

I can’t remember the last thing I bought that was a toy and intended to be such, something to just mess about with for entertainment.

Also, in case it hasn’t been clear, I’m not a gamer. Not video games, anyhow; RPGs were my game of choice, and I slipped out of doing that regularly nigh on sixish years ago now, with only the occasional half-hearted foray back once in a while. Looks like that’s changing. I’ll never be a hardcore gamer, but I’m interested in the phenomenon of casual games based on music and language, and there’s a growing market of those out there aimed at people exactly like me. This is a trend I’m happy to support.

Scratch Pad May 10

9:07:

It is probably a bad thing that I want to begin my day with a vanilla soda.

9:13:

I ended up not going to orchestra last night; too much work to do. I settled down in bed with my laptop after dinner and fell asleep around 8:30. Oops. Slept all the way till 6:15ish, too. That’s about twice the amount of sleep I’ve been getting a night.

9:59:

t! just showed up and asked me what the name of the dictionary is, as it has to go into the script somewhere.

A: Joyce. Let’s call it Joyce.
t!: No, that sounds too much like joy, of which there is none regarding this dictionary.
A: Wait — Hector, then. Yes, let’s call it Hector.
t!: Hector; yes, Hector. Doleful doleful, and all that.

10:33:

Over the past couple of days ADZO and Sandman7 have really helped me work through an issue I was having difficulty dealing with. Thanks, guys. I appreciate your thoughtful input. As a result, something vaguely resembling sanity has been restored. Or at least equilibrium in the associated area.

10:35:

For the third day in a row we are having merrily out-of-season weather. Lots of shorts and sandals around. I myself wore sandals yesterday, and am wearing a different pair today. Today I have also worn my first summer skirt of the season, and a t-shirt. Yesterday was a short-sleeved knit top with jeans, but today it is officially summer at my desk. Except when I went down to get a tea and another immensely delicious shortbreadbrowniesquarething, I discovered that not having a pocket for my key card is a drawback.

10:36:

I thought my job was pretty much over. Was I ever wrong. Now I’ve sorted my dbase by definition, and there are SO MANY DOUBLES. A script was supposed to catch these a few days ago, but I was only told about a couple of them. There are so many more. Woe! This is going to take longer than I expected. Good thing I’m coming in on Monday anyhow.

10:37:

Did I mention my contract was indeed officially extended last night? By a week, because of the placeholder voice work I’m doing in the studio next week. Heh.

14:23:

Scott and I have been talking back and forth about the different music-based games for the DS. I want someone to develop a Cello Hero game. Or maybe we could hack the upcoming Jam Sessions and make it sound like a cello.

14:32:

I wish someone would make a Music Minus One CD for Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack to King Arthur. It’s really phenomenal. Hans is so very fond of a solo cello line, either exposed or playing in the ensemble, possibly because he has such an awesome cellist in Martin Tillman. (See [well, hear, really] such examples as PoC 2 [and 1 by extension, as he had so much of a hand in Badelt’s score], King Arthur, The Da Vinci Code, and MI2. Tillman and Zimmer are the reason why I ordered the cello music to PoC2 a few months ago: it’s all for the opening track. Seriously — much is the cello love for Hans and Martin for that track alone. And it’s finally shipped to me! It should be arriving tomorrow!

14:47:

Sigh. Vanilla soda. Even at room temperature, you are heavenly.

14:50:

It occurs to me that my cello would sound awesome in this room. High ceilings, hardwood floors, not a lot of thick things to catch and muffle the sound… (See what happens when I listen to Hans Zimmer and think about music games at the same time? My worlds collide.)

14:55:

Just checked; there’s King Arthur sheet music available, but it’s for solo piano. I could arrange it, of course. Because I really don’t get enough of that in band already, you know. Although it would be worth it just for a few of the themes. And hey, band’s on hiatus for half a year; I’m going to need something to keep me busy after the July 1 chamber orchestra concert…

16:20:

Erk. t! just gave his opinion on the auditionees for one of the voices to be recorded for this project, and told the sound guy to use me instead.

Scratch Pad May 9

9:15:

So: the pressure is now off, unless something drastic happens. I’ve got a good version of the dictionary without US/UK spelling issues (as far as possible in the game words), questionable game words removed and the same in definitions replaced; all levels balanced. Now it’s tweaking, looking at words to see if I’m happy with the progression, double and triple-checking everything. I sent both last night’s version (the one currently loaded) and ths morning’s version (all known errors fixed) to our ESRB rep this morning; I’m waiting for a reply concerning changes or issues, but that may take a while.

9:47:

It feels odd to be kind of making work for myself after focusing so hard for the past couple of weeks.

11:01:

Five minutes ago they handed me a DS and asked me to play, and I found a bug for them. Heh. (Or maybe I just confirmed it. Whichever — go me.)

11:30:

I’ve been staring at -ise and -ize suffixes for so long that I can no longer tell what’s right and what isn’t — they all look wrong to me.

13:39:

I spent my lunch hour browsing in the new Welch’s second-hand bookstore location, and came out with an armful of books. Then I bought a vanilla soda and half a dozen bagels. I’m going to miss this area. I am definitely going to make an effort to come out here at least once a month for lunch with the gang.

14:01:

Yup. I’m going to miss this. I won’t miss the loss of two and a half hours a day to commuting, though, and I’m looking forward to not missing Liam so much. And I miss working on my own stuff, too. I’ve been sitting in bed at night with my laptop reading through the Vivaldi story and Swan Sister on my breaks, and my interest in them is slowly being revived again. I just wish there were more places around where I live where I could go sit and drink tea and write, in order to get myself out of the house.

14:05:

Stewart’s Cream Soda is SO GOOD. It is positively addictive. I’m glad HRH picked this instead of the lime soda by accident for me two weeks ago, because it has allowed me to discover the wonderfulness of it. I usually find cream soda much too sweet, but this is very smooth. And did I mention addictive? This one is gone much too soon. (Checking the clock I see that it’s been forty-five minutes since I started it, but it feels sooner because now I have no vanilla soda, and I am lonely…)

14:11:

They’re progammed a sound into the game that’s a kitten’s meow, and it’s amusing but distracting. I think of Stella every time I hear it, or as HRH has dubbed her, “Darroch’s little monster”.

14:37:

There is a world of difference between misspelling something and mistyping it. Just thought I’d share that. (So I have lousy typing ability. I can’t be perfect.)

14:48:

Just came back from a brief ice cream break with Meallanmouse. I had a small cup of chocolate, but I should have had a small cup of soft-serve. We also picked up vanilla soda, from a different company. Not As Good. Still, it is vanilla soda.

15:29:

Heh — they’ve just asked me to do a sound test. They want to record fifty-odd definitions. Naturally this occurs forty-five minutes after I have eaten ice cream, so I am all gunked up.

15:50:

Not happening today anyway; no time in the studio. They’ve also asked me to be the on-site consultant regarding the pronunciation of the competition words at the Friday recording session, as t! is away that day.

15:51:

Working on this contract has also really sharpened my desire to read again, particularly theological and spiritual texts. It’s like the analytical and critical part of my brain was kicked back into life.

16:41:

Looks like this sound test will happen Monday — so voila, my contract has been somewhat extended, even if only by one day. This has to be officially confirmed, of course, but it seems logical to me.

Scratch Pads May 7 and 8

The scratch pads at work have seen scarce use these past two days as I’ve been over my ears in work and staying as focused as possible. But here’s what did get jotted down:

May 7:

8:56:

I made pancakes this morning, inspired by Blade’s breakfast on Sunday. It went over very well; Liam ate more at this breakfast than he has at breakfast in weeks There is enough batter left over to do it again in a couple of days, too. My pancakes aren’t usually this fluffy; apparently all the planets aligned in a particular way this morning.

10:52:

“Armadillos range from South America to the southern part of the US.” Really? Those are well-traveled armadillos. WORD CHOICE AND ORDER COUNT, people.


May 8:

Had a pancake again this morning. I really enjoy it when the whole family eats breakfast together. Liam likes putting syrup on one of his silver dollar pancakes, topping it with a second, and eating it like a sandwich. Not as successful is trying to eat this sandwich by impaling it on a fork and lifting it to his mouth.

So very tired. What with working on the laptop at home on other work at night once dinner in finished, my brain’s not getting a chance to rest.

Was suddenly ravenous at 10 AM despite having had a sit-down breakfast again, and descended upon the cafe to forage. Ended up with a delicious square thing for my coffee break — a shortbread crust, with brownie on top. Also a hot chocolate. And yet, curiously enough I have not gained any weight while eating lunch out every day. (This isn’t necessarily a good thing. I was hoping to see the scale creep up a bit.)

14:23:

shopsoiled lotus (no, this should mean nothing to you, it’s a note to myself)

16:35:

Overheard: “Yay, you worked all day to get it broken.” (Yes, we’re on a build deadline, how did you guess?)

Today’s amusing link: The Austenblog points us to a fantasy Jane Austen action film.

Also, weather? Ridiculous. Three weeks ago there was snow on the ground. We hit a high of 27 degrees C today. Enjoyable, but alarming.

Sunday Morning

Liam has been sick for four or five days now, and he’s pretty fed up with it. He’s better, but cranky in general. Every once in a while he will just stop what he’s doing to just stand there and cry, and you can tell it’s the “I’m tired, and I’m tired of being sick, and I hate my teeth too just for good measure” kind of crying.

He was ricocheting around my office this morning, being magpie-like and bringing all sorts of things from different places to stack on my lap: a tablet of music manuscript paper, my Hedwig folder of random music, a small plate with an owl on it, my statue of Horus, two cassette tapes, his little Matchbox fire truck, a chopstick… anything that caught his eye. Then he started playing with the Velcro closing on the bow pocket of my cello case, so I put all my email stuff on hold and said, “Liam, I have a treat for you, but you have to go into the living room and be quiet for it.” He ran into the living room, very excited, and I pulled the viola out of my cupboard.

Now, this viola only has the top three strings, and it’s missing a soundpost, and the bow hair has pulled mostly out of the ferrule; in short, it needs work before it could ever seriously be played. But a two year old cares nothing for such things.

I set the case down on the floor of the living room and Liam crouched next to me, watching as I unlatched it and opened the lid. Right away he beamed and his hand darted out to strum the strings. I lifted it out and did a rough tuning to make sure the strings were at least in tune with each other for him (and for our benefit too). He bounced around, and we asked him to quiet down again before letting him explore it without endangering it. Then I told him to go get his little chair, but there were height issues so he sat on the ground instead, and I gave him his very own cello.

He was absolutely thrilled, and was very careful with it as he plucked with both hands while singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. The notes were nothing like the song, of course, but he knew what he was doing: he was playing music and singing along.

We let him play until he started getting too physical with it, and a little frustrated because he couldn’t make it sound the way he wanted to. Then we put it to bed in its case and said night-night to the baby cello.

I have such an awesome son.

Scratch Pad May 4

9:03:

Gah. Another night of 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Liam woke up at quarter to six, which is better than yesterday’s five-thirty. It wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t working in the evenings at home, too, and going to bed late.

9:04:

Oh, thank gods — the file mailed correctly and arrived here safe and sound. I don’t know what I would have done if it hadn’t arrived or had arrived corrupted somehow. Cried inside and gone home to work on it, I suppose.

9:05:

Happy birthday, John David!

10:04:

Wow. The French dictionary team is having a worse time than I’ve had; their structure is much more rigid.

11:10:

Hee hee hee — I was just a guinea pig for the Wii remote, as I am “someone not of a technological bent”. I got to test some movement values. It was a pink remote, which amuses me immensely.

11:43:

I am aghast. This dictionary still uses the no longer academically accepted BC/AD abbreviations, instead of the BCE/CE.

12:10:

Eating (a surprisingly good) lunch at my desk, having regretfully cancelled a lunch date with the guitarist from Invisible (I know, I know — I can hear the band’s fans screaming in disbelief) because I want to make sure this is done and handed in by five. If I’m not done today, everyone else gets backed up too. When I went downstairs to get my sandwich there were a pair of guitarists practicing in the cafe, playing some really nice laid-back warm afternoon coffeehouse-type jazz. Made me wish I didn’t have to come back upstairs to work.

12:29:

Ceri sent me to see this picture. Maybe that’s how this dictionary got so awful.

13:45:

Overheard: “Screw the washing machine, get the PS3.”

13:46:

Starting to go a bit wonky. I’ll take a short walk when it’s done. I have another 150 words to find definitions for; four hundred down. Drive! Drive!

16:43:

It will never end. Every time I run a check I lose words, so I have to sift through the removed ones to find some to put back in, or tweak them to make them usable. I rebalance the totals. The I run my next check, and I lose more. It’s on ongoing cascade effect that wil keel mee dedd. *headdesk*

17:39:

Still here. Am bitter and determined now. It will be done today, damn it.

18:59:

IT IS DONE! WOO-HOO!

(also? Nice overtime this week. Go me.)

Scratch Pad May 3

11:42:
Now it’s a game. Can I transfer a certain number of words to another level to make the numbers even out? (If I think of it as a game, it’s fun.)

13:35:
Lunch out with the gang! I will have make the effort to come downtown semi-regularly once this contract is up simply for the lunches.

14:51:
The entire room emptied out to surprise our assistant producer in the cafe, as it is his birthday. Very cool. I am now back as I have a pile of work to do before tomorrow afternoon, and I am the only one in the room, which is eerie.

16:15:
I cannot believe this pile of work that persists in not going anywhere fast. It’s all about adding a word here, taking one away there, shifting between the levels to keep things at the target numbers… but there are still over three hundred missing. I am not bitter about the loss of the supplemental dictionary, but I could be if I dwell on it too long. It comes down to adding as many new words as possible, then doing a reverse casade thing where I move blocks into higher levels and look for lower level words to replace them, over and over.

22:47:
Yes, I am at home, and am slogging through this redistribution and inserting words into various levels, readjusting, inserting, readjusting… I’m not going to bed until my target levels are within ten or so words for each level. That gives me enough room to lose more for various reasons. Figures this would happen today, when I got three secondhand cello books in the mail that I won on eBay and want to play through them. Liam has a very definite cold, and is back on his cold syrup. It’s almost gone; there will be just enough to send to daycare with him tomorrow before I have to pick up more. He’s not happy and he’s kind of off his feed, but he’s not deathly ill enough to keep home. (Good thing, because I can’t stay home, and neither can HRH after taking Wednesday off for Liam and Tuesday off for the car.)

11:17:
There; done. Tomorrow, I get definitions for the five hundred-odd new words and make sure they’re within the specified length. That’s all I have to do before sending it to the people who need to upload it, to make the demo ready for next week. I say “all” but I know damn well I’m going to be working insanely hard, and taking a short lunch in order to get it done by five.

Now: bed.