Category Archives: General

Iceland: 24 hours of Ice, Snow, and Awesome

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Thursday, November 15th, 2012. 1530 PST

Time Awake: 6h30m

As we begin our journey to the mystical land of Iceland, we ponder the adventure ahead of us. And by “ponder” I really mean “wonder what we’ll do for 24 hours in Iceland with a rental car, no internet connection, and just a few offline maps downloaded to our Android devices.” Attempts to sleep on plane are met with resistance. Watch Independence Day with increasingly blurry eyes. Ponder the reasons why I hate flying.

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Brian unsuccessfully attempting to sleep.

 

Friday, November 16th, 2012. 0730 UTC

Time Awake: 14h30m

We have landed into a very dark and cold environment. Noticing that the roads are icy and that the land is covered with snow, we briefly reconsider our plans. At car rental agency, eagerly pay an extra ten Euros in order to acquire a local GPS device with directions. Pile into our Mazda 6 and journey forth.

Friday, November 16th, 2012. 0830 UTC

Time Awake: 15h30m

After passing through approximately 20 roundabouts while journeying through the outskirts of Reykjavik, we begin heading towards Geysir and the hydrothermal fields deep inside a national park. Traffic is extremely light, but the roads are extremely icy and snowy. Brian admits that he isn’t sure he entered in the correct destination into the GPS, but we seem to be going to the correct general area.

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Uhhh. Can you see?

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Group One Reports Enemy Contact

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As I just wrote about, Homeworld is one of my favorite games for a multitude of reasons. Another aspect that makes this piece memorable is the voice acting of your Mothership, which is handled by the Canadian folk singer Heidi Ernest of the band The Western Investor. She provides a calming voice with a hint of ever present loss and the crushing responsibilities that have now befallen her character while directing the activities of the fleet that is now under her command. Extracting these files was no easy task. They were packed in a proprietary container that needed to be extracted using tools originally written for Windows ME; after slogging through a bunch of dependencies and managing to get the program to run, I had 5000 files in another proprietary format that required me to install and use an ancient WinAmp plugin. Converting them to wav files commenced from there, and after an hour or two of work I finally had a few thousand files to my name with absolutely no titles other than an ordered number. Here are a few of my favorites; please excuse the audio quality: the initial bitrate of these files is pretty atrocious.

Frigate Lost

Whenever a frigate-class or larger ship is destroyed, a status message is overheard.

Kharak is Burning

Played after discovering their home planet was utterly destroyed by a previously unknown group of enemies.

Marshaling the Fleet

Mothership is Under Fire

The Mothership, while tough, is relatively defenseless other than a few point-defense cannons.

Combat Group Status Reports

As various combat groups ply the wastelands of space, reports filter in from the Mothership coordinating their missions.




Homeworld

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This is something I wrote a while back, but never got around to publishing.

Homeworld is a masterpiece. A truly 3-D space real time strategy game, Homeworld deftly wove a compelling story while smartly relying on one of the best soundtracks ever made and beautiful ship designs. I’m not even sure I could possibly tell you how amazing this game is without making a mockery of its true grandeur, but here we go.

This was a game that used its instructional manual to full effect; it strove to give the user a background to the journey they’re about to embark upon. Titled a “historical and technical briefing,” this beautiful manual told a story of a people as they discovered that they were not native to the planet they had considered their home. With interesting sidebars and compelling tidbits, the backstory is still an absolute joy to read as the guide traces the story of how a people began a massive undertaking to construct a mothership that would take them to their true Homeworld, and the subsequent religious strife between the kiths (clans) that broke out when they realized that all that they had understood and known was nothing more than a misconception. Preparing to launch their first vehicle in process of constructing the mothership, a frenzied mob of religious revivalists attempted to break through to the rocket, and as

Per Doine slipped through the cordon and prayed for salvation beneath the rocket’s main engines until they ignited, vaporizing him. He died a martyr for the cause.

Citing middle-eastern influences, Paul Ruskay created one of the most compelling soundtracks ever made for a game. When one of the opening missions begins with a very low shot of the Mothership as a haunting vocal arrangement of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings begins to play.

Adagio for strings:

‘You then move your camera and discover that your old home planet has been completely destroyed: killing all of your friends and family left behind. When battling through pirates, a tribal soundtrack is playing; the scared garden dwellers has a certain mystical and changing tone to it, and when fighting those who had destroyed your planet, a strong and bold song arises.

Imperial battle music:

The missions are all mixed and compelling: while each one requires a very specific fleet arrangement and strategy, you’re constrained by the fact that resources are limited and that your ships and supply carry over from the previous missions: if you invest too heavily in anti-fighter ships in one mission, you may run out of resources when you need to build your anti-capital ship frigates in the next.

Homeworld still runs remarkably well on modern hardware and Windows 7.

Moving away from Pike/Pine

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I usually get pretty sentimental when I’m moving out of a residence. Apartments inherently private spaces that are odd in that once we move out of them, we’re rarely ever going to go back inside to reminisce or see how it has changed since we’ve been gone. Our two distinct paths suddenly collide, we move in to the building, and then go upon our separate ways. The apartment stays behind as the modular unit where someone else will take over, and the resident goes to (hopefully) greener pastures. Still, there are shared experiences and memories that stay behind.

For my apartment of three years with Eddy in the U-District, I still have fond memories of our huge drunken 23rd birthday party, and of the hours spent playing Super Smash Brothers. Many were the times where Tom and I played Mass Effect 2 long into the night on the projector before Eddy came back with offerings of “mexican” food to shove into our mouths. It was where I spent my last years as an undergrad, and learned the complexities of renting and living in a city while away from the dorms. I remember staying up unable to move after my surgery, and spending hours reading up on what was impacting me. Then we went our separate ways, and I ended up at the confluence between Pike/Pine and Capitol Hill.

It was a quaint complex of small old houses that were converted into small apartments, and I choose a unit that was in a building with only 4 other single-bedroom and studio apartments. There was a small courtyard, lots of chickadees, and my corner bedroom had a half (vertical) view of the Space Needle. Yet it was an unnerving place, and I never really spent much time in my living room. I think it was partially because of a huge shared wall that it contained, and also that it didn’t offer anything that my bedroom didn’t.

Then, of course, it was broken into. And my psyche, as well as the living room window, was shattered. I quickly covered it in curtains and never really opened them again.

There aren’t really any other memories of that apartment. It was mainly me hiding in my living room while thinking of when I can move out after my lease was up. Pike/Pine was a cool enough place, and the surrounding areas were good, but I’m not really sad to see that apartment go. There are very little good memories attached to it, and I’m at a much cooler place while still on the Hill. yayyy.

Suggestions when Dealing with Friends in Seattle (or any large city)

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I’ve started writing, and almost finished, a number of posts over the past few months. For whatever reason I never got around to finishing them, or didn’t feel like publishing them at the time. Congratulations! It’s your lucky day: time to read some of Nikky’s drafts and things that never quite made it before! Yayyy!

So I guess this post was going to be something about “what to do when dealing with a Seattleite, or any urban dweller.” But I could never really get it all threaded into one cohesive post without sounding like a pretentious douchebag. They aren’t really interesting enough to be split up into individual posts, so they languished around until I decided to release as-is.

What I’d like to talk about today is some general guidelines that I’ve accumulated the past few years (gosh, has it been SIX years?) living in Seattle. They’re things I’ve seen, experienced, and thought about quite a bit.

Don’t Assume We Own Cars

Chances are, your Seattle friend doesn’t own a car. We get around by walking, biking, and riding the bus to most places. The transit system is pretty swell here too, and we can go all around Seattle in our public chariots. And we can usually even go to the suburbs if required!

Now, making plans outside of Seattle is weird for us (why would you want to leave the city?), but okay, I suppose that happens sometimes. But if you do invite your Seattle buddy along to a place where transit doesn’t exist all the time, it’d be just super if you offered to give them a ride.

And in return? We let you sleep in our dwellings when you’re in our city overnight.

Suburbs are Scary

Now, some of you may like thin-walled townhomes, endless stripmalls, and medium population density. We don’t like any of these things, and that’s why we choose to live in Seattle City limits. The suburbs are outlying culture-free zones, and seem to resemble a place where fun goes to die.

I’m not talking about seanic places here, or the country. I’m talking about the suburbs where everyone looks the same, does the same thing, and has the same job. This culture (or lack thereof) scares the hell out of us.

We also have a very hazy idea of where outlying cities are: they’re all kind of a blurry spot on the map where IKEA lives.

Stop Saying the City is Dangerous and Full of Crazy People

Protip: crazy people exist everywhere, we just don’t see them as much. And violence? Hey guess what! It happens everywhere too! Wow! It’s just that cities have a) effective newspapers, b) crime blogs, and c) more freaking people. We live in a city and we know what is and isn’t dangerous. If we’re with you and we seem nonplussed that some shirtless dude is karate kicking the phone pole, it’s because that’s pretty much the norm. He won’t hurt anyone.

The beauty of urban living is that you’re exposed to all walks of humanity, not just the hand-curated circle of friends that you see on a daily basis.

Okay, I guess that’s it

Ka-blamo.

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Lucy the Dog

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Every day, for as long as I can remember, my mom went out in the morning to walk the dog. She took Lucy the dog for a walk last Friday, went to work, and we haven’t seen her since. Lucy was an elderly dog, had trouble walking, and we don’t hold out much hope of finding her again. Like Rocky, her predecessor, we think she went out into the woods and passed away quietly.

One rainy afternoon after school, my grandmother, mom, sister and I were coming out of a store when we noticed a very scared and shivering dog tied to a dumpster. She had been abandoned by her previous owners, and we came to the immediate conclusion that we couldn’t leave her out in the cold rain. This young brown-spotted half-dalmatian with a brown patch over one eye was scared of us, and whenever we made a sudden movement or created a loud noise, she recoiled in terror. She was quickly accepted into our family, and our other dog quickly adjusted to her presence.

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Venting Drive Plasma

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I’ve been writing a lot less than I’ve wanted to lately. And reading a lot less than I’ve wanted to. Not to mention gaming, photographing, travelling, hiking and exploring. Ruby? Yeah, I remember I should be doing that too. Dating has been stuck into assorted time slots, and often pushed aside completely when more important things come into play.

I’m running into just about everything all at the same time. Work has been, as expected this month, absolutely insane busy and I’m finding it impossible to disengage myself in the evening. It’s hard to think of anything else when I know that if I get more done now, there’ll be less tasks when I come into the office tomorrow. My work-life balance is pretty far out of whack, but it’s not going to get better any time soon.

I have this sneaking suspicion that my immune system is fighting off a virus and is working overtime to keep me up and running because it knows that if I stumble, things won’t go well. I’m keeping it reinforced as best I can with sleep and vitamins, but I just hope it can last out until I can pay proper attention to myself again. On a normal workload, I usually have one mug of green tea in the morning. Now I’ve switched to multiple mugs of black tea and coffee a day. It’s not a good combination.

My lease is up at the end of July, and I’m already freaking out about finding a new place to live. I know I’m going to be moving out, but the prospect of searching for another place is terrifying. It’s one of my least favorite activities ever, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to fit that in. Cancelling sleep, maybe? Weekends?

I’m supposed to be planning vacations, concerts to go to, and try to do normal human things to try and get away from work and de-stress. But it’s almost impossible to get myself up to the task, and when opportunities do come up, our upcoming project schedule have already nuked plans. And even if those are clear, my co-workers have already planned things for the same days and I’m stuck covering their loads. And, of course, once I do find something, everyone else I want to go with is completely socked up and unavailable.

As per usual standard operating procedure, dating is going terrifically terrible. Whatever I can get scheduled usually results in awkward interactions followed by a lack of any further correspondence. I’m not looking for anything serious or long-term, but I would like something at least resembling a relationship. Clearly I must come off as a complete jerk with the personality of some primordial ooze, and I have to admit: my self-confidence is starting to take a hit.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that please don’t take it personally if I’m not very responsive or unusually terse, even for me. I’m just trying to save some sanity. I’ll be back soon to the world of the living. I promise. Right after I flee to Alaska for a week. Or Vancouver Island. Or anywhere. Eventually.