For my next project, while I consider what I’m going to write/program next (Ok so I already know, I’m just procrastinating). I’m doing something a little different: carpentry. Sal found this outdoor setting, in need of some TLC, which we(I) can do up.
I’ve already made a start (that’s why one of the chairs is missing, it’s currently in pieces)
As you can see, just with sanding (which is always a lot longer and more painful than you expect. Like software, it obeys Hofstadter’s Law) and painting (no staining) they’ve come up a beautiful red colour. I’m guessing at about 3 hours each weekend that I seem to get free, it should take in the order of 6 weeks.
Post Category: Uncategorized
May 8th, 2008 at 04:03pmbenbastian
I’ve just finished the first draft of my first novel.
It’s terrible. The characters are two dimensional, they jump in and out of the action, sometimes they get forgotten altogether. Sometimes they manage to pull out improbably tricks out of nothing, with a fairly cringeworthy new agey “We are all made of light” type explanation. It has no real plot as such. The words don’t flow. My terse little phrases crunch together like ride-on-trains in a demolition derby.
That is to be expected, of course, it’s the first draft. There is a whole next phase of rewriting that will have to go into making it a full novel.
But I’m not going to do it. At least not yet.
If this experience has taught me anything it is that I haven’t yet perfected my craft of writing to the stage where I feel that I can do justice to the story that I want to tell. I know that I can get there but, I yet have a lot to learn, not least in estimation - I had hoped that this would take me six months, but in the end it took eighteen, not that bad given that I work in a job that is often way more than full time, and I’ve been also learning the disciplines of parenting, but still longer than I would wish.
But its also told me that I at least have the discipline to sit down and write, and that’s worth something. I also think that it’s hugely important that I can see that what I have written is mostly crap - it means that I am getting a sense of what is good and what isn’t, and hopefully means that what is written next will be better.
So what’s next?
I have a short story to revise, and another one that wants to be written, not to mention the three brothers of this one that are clamouring to be written. Plus it’d be nice to do some ‘programming for fun’ type stuff. We’ll see.
Post Category: Uncategorized
May 5th, 2008 at 04:17pmbenbastian
I’ve just managed to hit one hundred thousand words of my novel. I’m going to celebrate by going to bed.
Post Category: Uncategorized
April 8th, 2008 at 01:09ambenbastian
Sleep deprived as usual, although it’s my own fault: Sal and Sophia are visiting family for easter, while I elected(stupidly) to stay behind and get some work done at what I thought would be a critical time. Just nobody else thought so. Anyway as always when I have free time to myself I’ve binged by reading and catching up with my video game research(cough) to three in the morning most nights. I think that I died somewhere around 2.40 last night. All that’s left is me wandering around looking for brains…
I wonder if the scarecrow from wizard of oz was a zombie. He wanted brains. Somebody should do wizard of oz as a horror story…
Anyway I’m trying to break up the logjam of my thoughts, but not getting very far.
Post Category: Uncategorized
March 25th, 2008 at 01:09ambenbastian
Define interesting
Oh God, Oh god we’re all going to die?
Post Category: Uncategorized
March 19th, 2008 at 11:12pmbenbastian
I have started my journey as a writer: I have received my first rejection for a short story. This (perhaps surprisingly) has actually put me in a pretty good mood, as it makes me feel a little more like a real writer. Besides, it follows on the heels of my first (tentative) acceptance, so one for two isn’t bad! I need to get some more short stories written now so that I can have more stuff out there, looking for a home.
Post Category: Uncategorized
March 13th, 2008 at 11:10pmbenbastian
In case you don’t know what a doomer is, then a decent definition is here:
http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2008/02/334-welcome-to-doomer-feedlot.html
It basically means that somewhere somehow, I’d be comfortable wearing a placard saying the end is nigh. Don’t worry I’m trying to wean myself off it. It’s pretty addictive.
So the scary thought for today is here: http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/3657#more
Some thoughts:
* Petrol is likely to be mind numbingly expensive.
* I live close enough to work to ride, and I’m not yet so far gone that I’m buying beans and ammunition.
* Most Australian food is grown close to the cities, so that’s all good.
* Today-tonight are going to have a lot more crappy journalism blaming it all on petrol price gouging.
Post Category: Uncategorized
February 24th, 2008 at 12:03ambenbastian
My typing skills have something to be desired. Let’s face it, despite the fact that I’m basically typing all day, I still fee that could improve dramatically.
So what to do about it? Obviously just typing for the sake of typing isn’t necessarily the answer. I need some sort of typing tutor, and yet, mavis beacon is just a little on the wishy washy side.
What I want is something a bit more…butch. Say a typing game with zombies, complete with poor acting, idiotic looking agents with dreamcasts strapped to their backs and atrocious Engrish.
Enter typing of the dead. Type fast or be eaten by hordes of slavering undead.
Typing of the dead is an adaptation of House of the Dead 2, a fairly standard late nineties lightgun arcade game on rails. Like many Japanese games of the era, the dialogue is terrible, the story a joke and the graphics aren’t really up to much, even by the standards of the day.
However, Sega rereleased it as a typing game to try to sell the Dreamcast’s optional keyboard. The result is pure genius. The game plays like many on rails shooters, except that each zombie has a panel in front of the them with the word to type. By quick actions, for instance killing a zombie before it kills an innocent bystander, will cause the game to branch in simple ways. The game is broken up into individual level and each level has a boss at the end. The game’s arcade roots are lovingly honoured, for instance, by making the words for the boss incredibly hard, but if you lose a credit, then they’ll become suddenly much easier.
While the english in the cutscenes is sniggeringly bad, some of the typed language is sophisticated, for instance “deoxyribonucleic acid”, or a boss where you have to answer the question “Which one smells bad”, and have the multiple choice of “Halitosis”, “Bumblebees” and “Trade secrets”
Plus the dreamcasts on the main character’s back are funky.
As well as the main story mode, other modes allow you to hone your skills, play the arcade version or merely take on various bosses unlocked in the story mode.
All in all, although it seems unlikely to really improve my typing, it will be fun trying it. I have no doubt that it is the best zombie killing typing game with bad english in the world.
Post Category: gameplay
February 19th, 2008 at 01:00ambenbastian
Colour me pink and call me James Howard Kunstler. I guess that as a prognosticator, I make a good programmer.
Post Category: Uncategorized
January 23rd, 2008 at 09:36ambenbastian
Heath Ledger died today. His role in the upcoming Batman movie is/was going to be the highlight of the film. He has a young daughter the same age as mine.
Post Category: Uncategorized
January 23rd, 2008 at 09:34ambenbastian
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