From Zone, with fanfiction - spreading word on "Snork Bait"

[UPDATE June 12, 2018: 
Zavtrak Snorka/ Snork bait has a new home at Karl's freshly built campfire. Now presented as a series of linked posts (per chapter), the old PDF links are retired.]

------------- Original Post-----------------

This post's primary objective is to spread word on a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fanfiction novel Snork Bait. Here's a bunch of secondary objectives: to toot my own horn, namely, my involvement in the book's editing-developing process; display a series of drawings made in response to the story updates in the forums back in the day (again, by me-me-me!); and last but not least, add to the channels to access the book itself. 

Here's a pretty picture to start things off. And a brief video. The bulkier stuff comes after the jump.

Girl power meets (kicks) whiny reviews

Here's the thing: I absolutely loved the movie "Sucker Punch". I would also like to think that I'm one of those who "got it" the moment i saw it. (Let's just say, the multi-layered puzzle-y, metaphor-y stuff kinda is my thing. And I tend to not dismiss a rising-from-the-ashes heroine just because I can see her panties when she kicks.)
Here's another thing: I semi-regularly check out Movie Bob's reviews and weekly Big Picture musings at the Escapist. And it was his "don't-miss-this-movie-folks" review that got me interested in Sucker Punch in the first place. So, when I saw that this week's (and the next) episode is addressing just that, I felt that I'd like to do my part spreading the word. (Here's his original review as well.)

Gaming is a serious business. So is having fun.

I've been postponing the obvious for a while and right now seems to be the perfect time to post it. Namely, the two talks that Jane McGonigal has given at TED.

In fact it was that first talk of hers that completed the circuit in my brain that lit up the bulb shining the message "to play = to learn! Eureka!"

Playing with sounds + due credits (vol 3)

So, I have been recording my gaming sessions again. I've come a long way since my first thorough session and I have learned to control some of the recording conditions. I'm using headphones, so the mic won't catch an extra blast of speaker sound. I'm stuffing the webcam mic right under my nose so my voice won't get lost. And Youtube lets me upload long videos (I don't fully understand why - I haven't provided my phone number which seemed to be one of the conditions early on; and the note that says "yay, you can now upload longer videos" doesn't provide any further explanation.) All that means, there is less need for the heavy editing that I had to do apply at my very first attempts.

Then again, sometimes unexpected stuff happens. The other day I lost a whole "episode" because the recording hadn't kicked in like I thought it had. Oh well, ignore and move on. And then, even before that, I'd done some recording after a crashing and restarting the game. Turned out it had no audio. First I scrapped it but then felt all creative and decided to put together another musical number. Which means, that once again it is time to say: Thank you, Kevin!


And here is the result too.

P.S. This time I stayed away from the classical interpretations and explored the material by mood and feel. Still managed to get once copyright notice - but they took it back.

Learning to Take Better Photos

I am not a photographer. I have grown up next to photography: one of the extra-vivid childhood memories is me crouching over the table in the darkened kitchen, watching my dad place a sheet of white paper into some liquid and say: "now, let's see what will appear!" It was some random lady dancing or practising in a dark gym leotard - and I felt a little pang of disappointment that it wasn't someone I knew. (Like me, for example.) But in present day, flipping through the print stacks stored in those black paper envelopes, I can still recognize that picture - or at least the series it came from. As an adult, I have also had the occasional joy to work alongside with photographers and I've found myself able to temporarily pick up the main concepts and terminology quite well.


Observing other people work, has made it abundantly clear in my mind - I am not a photographer and I do not aspire to be one. What I like to do, however, is to point, shoot and ogle (preferably at subjects that won't run away). In summer days like these, I like to incorporate some crawling-in-the-grass-trying-to -catch-an-image into my waking routine. (Oftentimes there is also some coffee waiting under a bush - that is, if I don't spill it.)
Yesterday (or yesterday-adjacent. Ish.), after I had discovered rgbstock, I got so bold that I made myself an account there and uploaded a bunch of my recent experimenting there. Rgbstock has this system where they check the photos first and then publish the ones they're happy with. They seem to have a somewhat standardized quality-checklist to go with the process because for the images they don't pick, they always provide the information why (but without getting into too many details). This is brilliant! I mean, if an image wasn't picked because they already host the same subject in abundance, there isn't much to do about it - but if they give pointers about lighting, cropping, background noise and such, this provides me a wonderful learning opportunity!


For example: this pic didn't make it because it was too dark.

This one had too much stuff going on in the background.

With this one they suggested reconsidering the frame/ cropping.

But the wonderful part? They actually did publish some of my images! Like, a whole six of them! Considering my doesn't-run-off-or-move-too-much subject choice (read: flowers), this is a lot more than I anticipated. In any case, all this gives me a lot of courage and motivation to go on with the experimenting, and occasionally trying to hang out the results for others to see.

ED:
Oh, almost forgot. There is also another skill that this process would (unintentionally) improve. In my line of work I often have to search and pick images. Sometimes I find myself in the situation where I need to decide if the image has good enough quality to use or not - and I've found my skill noticeably lacking in this department. In other words - having other people assess my stuff and then trying to apply their critique on my future images, I'm developing a keen eye on multiple fronts. Win-win :)

Kindered Spirits and Related Terms (1)

As I've noticed before, googling yourself (or your aliases, or your oh-so-original ideas... well, you get the point) often leads to curious findings of cool terms and exciting stuff other people do. I've described these humbling/enlightening discoveries here, here, and there are some more future references parked in my bookmarks, waiting.


Yesterday I happened to find Karla's works this way (still digging in). Our focus areas may be a little different, but there are some wonderful overlaps too, especially when it comes to learning from mistakes and TED-talks (see? and: see? :))

In this post she unravels another TED-talk about mistakes and problem-solving. I know have not referenced that talk myself, but the keywords immediately struck me as familiar. ... Aaaand a quick Youtube detour later: found the video itself and saw that I've 'liked' it at some point. [utterly giddy-extatic expressions go here] Here's the video itself, and my high-five to Karla!

Sign me up: the Mid-Class Assessment

Copy-paste the context just in case...

So, I've been taking the Google' Power Searching course and I've been trying to record my thoughts while doing so. /.../ Furthermore, I set myself another sneaky condition - leave the test alone until I've had a good sleep.

Well, now I've had my nap, and a coffee, and it's evening so my brain is working without me having to force it, so I took the test. Here are the random thoughts from the process. 

Random thought #1. "Pay attention to what the question is! Even if the answer seems obvious, just check what they're actually asking!" Lesson learned from the in-lesson activities - I submitted a super-smartass answer ... only to see that it only covered half of the question. And thinking back, I've done exactly that in countless occasions. So I'm turning this course into a training for self-discipline as well. 

Random thought #2. "I really like how these questions are built! I wish I'd written these." The question type in question is where you place the learner into a hypothetical situation where she'd have to choose a course of action specific to that situation. A bunch of such related questions in the row, and I'm finding myself in a simulated scenario. This is one of those well-designed - and intuitive - learning situations that Kathy Moore discusses in her e-learning blog. (I'm planning a lot more future references to her materials - and what I've learned from there, but at the moment, let this mention serve as a mental note.) 

Random thought #3. "Hmm, before I submit the answers on "what would your query look like" type of questions, why not try these queries out in another window, just to be sure. Oh... This is exactly what you're implicitly encouraging us to do, isn't it. You crafty buggers :D" 

Random thought #4. In case of a digital environment like Google, the virtual/ imaginary world and its real counterpart are pretty much the same. Meaning, the option to "go and try it out for real" is always at my fingertips. I mean, how cool is that!

Random Thought #5. It's a really great ...er... feature(?) that you can try as much as you need to get the answers right and then submit your score. (I still get a special kind of satisfaction that I "got it" at the first try. And that I get to tell about it :D)


A pretty picture too.

No, this time I didn't search for "pretty picture" anymore. I searched for "circuit", then applied the green palette-filter, then picked one appealing result and used the "similar" function to hop further. The image leads to the source page as well - it seems that I've found a cool free image stock by accident!
[Sidenote: here's one rule that I'm setting for myself if this blogging thing should ever work out well: "Whenever I share something from an outside source, I'm telling. I SO am telling!"] So - Thank you, Alytre

Sign me up: the second and third class

So, I've been taking the Google' Power Searching course and I've been trying to record my thoughts while doing so. The second and third class lessons go beyond the elementary tools (which, it turned out, I had plenty to learn about) and focus more on how you're putting it all into context. Here are some of the random thoughts I developed during those classes.

Random Thought #1. "Ooh, interpreting! Now they speak my language!"

Random Thought #2. "Waiddaminnute... this aint't Google search!" My usual search habit is this - the Chrome browser user that I am, I type my search into address bar and that's it. I haven't bothered to actually open a Google front page in years. Lately I had been noticing that the search results interface on my Windows machine (unlike at the "Office Ubuntu") looked different. In a work rut I had shrugged it off as some update process going on. But now it became apparent that some other engined had sneaked itself into defaults - easy to change.



Random Thought #3. "No, wait, I don't want the Local Google, I want Google proper. No-no-no-no-no, don't you dare re-direct me to .ee again. Hm, but if I try it this way... No-no-no-no-NO. Fuck. How am I supposed to learn all thios fun stuff if I can't even set up the basic tools for it? Holy FUCK, this is frustrating. I don't feel much like learning so much. And I've used up the time I meant to set aside for this lesson." I was almost about to post a lament in the course forums, DEMANDING an extra instruction on how to handle the local settings. Then I saw one user's advice to another: "switch to Google.com by clicking that link. It's at the bottom of the page." I looked. Of course it was at the bottom of the page.

Random Thought #4. So, the 'define' function that I once enjoyed so much (and that might very well be the one useful thing I managed to give to my students during my brief teaching career) is not lost and gone at all. It just doesn't work on the "local-Google".



Random Thought #5. "Yay, completed the first set of classes, on to the assessment while my search-y fingers are still warm... um... why the rush?" I managed to dissipate my knee-jerk-y urge to complete all thats novel and exciting in one breath and then, at the peak of excitedness be left staring the blank wall, eyes glowing, feeling that certain combination of accomplishment and creeping emptiness. Not this time. I decided to take my time, sleep on it, let my brain process and settle the active(ated) skill'n'knowledge. Furthermore, I set myself another sneaky condition - leave the test alone until I've had a good sleep.


Here's another pretty picture. As in: another image search result for the phrase "pretty picture". This time through the white palette-filter. (The top images featured a fair amount of bunnies and unicorns. And seahorses and such.)

(Comes from this blog. I'll mark it for later reading - seems worth exploring.) 

Learning of my unoriginality...

... and discovering a world of wonders in the process. While still under the profound influence of having read Zero History, I was once toying around with one of my forum profiles. While trying to find short but definitive phrases to go with the username, I figured that my "genre of being" was best described by "ecopunk". Today, I was toying with the idea that what if I could add that aspect/ flavour/ facet to this place as well. And in the process found out that there already was such a place, fully dedicated to "that aspect".

I'm only starting to dig in, but the "real" Ecopunk site seems one helluva resource... source. Check them out!

ED: Here's another great post :) (The one about idiots and money, I mean.)

Sign me up: the first class

So, a few weeks back I decided to take Google's Power Searching course. I just completed Class1 (and will start the next soon enough). I learned a few new things and developed some random thoughts in the process. Let's see then.

Random thought #1. When taking the pre-course assessment, i had to answer "don't know" to most questions - at first I felt a little dumb; then I imagined the answers to be "don't know because I haven't tried," and felt better :D

Random thought #2. One new thing I learned was to sort image search by a specific colour. Sure enough, I've been using the "grayscale" and other complex sorting options quite a bit. And my eyes have registered the palette being there. But it never ocurred to me to try it out. So, I'm glad they drew attention to that - a pretty cool feature once you know to pay attention to it.

Random thought #3. When the class got to the part about keyword choices I felt a pang of pride - the techniques they discussed there were pretty close to the intuitive-chaotic ways I've come to practice on my own!

Random thought #4. When I was able to start the first class, I had arrived from a business trip, dog-tired. I didn't really feel like watching a portion of video os someone explaining "how it's done". At that moment I was really grateful that the class sontents were also made available as text and slides. (In fact, I grasped the Image sort lesson solely from the slides.) Then again, with the more verbal-focused lessons I found it more enjoyeable to sit back and "watch them explain their craft".

Random thought #5. As a somewhat-seasoned Google-dweller, I greatly enjoy how Google's own people are putting their habitat into use. The medium truly is the message.

Random thought #6. In the very beginning of the first lessons, my own professional background nearly gave me the knee-jerk urge to start analyzing the course formats and whatnot. And then I got over it - and instead, observed how the form followed function and naturally shaped itself by purpose.




And here is a pretty picture to complete the first class. No, seriously - I searched for "pretty picture" and then filtered the images by green.

playing with sounds + due credits

Today I learned another skill: namely, how to add more audio when editing some video. (The desire to figure it out is fuelled by my recent attempts with ingame video recording - and the discovery that due to various settings, choices and circumstances, my ingame talk doesn't quite qualify as "audible", so I'd want to post-produce in some context narration.)

Since a the media tinkering I do is strictly for my own purposes and separated from my proffessional doings, I'm always on the lookout for freeware and free resources. I shall soon write up a longer story about my adventures with game video and the tools to go with it.
Right now, however, I want to express my gratitude to Incompetech for some of the music clips I used in a home video of mine (no, I'm not going to show the video itself). I could try to say that I'm "spreading the word" but let's face it: my audience at the moment being my sister, one guy across the big sea and one guy across a little less sea (plus some mystery visitor from Grmany), the word wouldn't resonate that much.

 So instead I'll say: THANK YOU, KEVIN :)


P.S: I also see some future for the Sugar Plum Fairy in one of the upcoming/ planned game videos.