We bought an octopus toy from Amazon for the babies. And they love it. Anything that lets them crawl inside is, of course, a ton of fun. But this has five arms for them to climb in and out of as well as the mouse. They play "Queen of the Octopus" (and yes, Broots is our drag ferret, we've decided).
Octopus eating Broots! omNomNom
Only his little tail is left! omNomNom!
Maybe Zoe can save him...Oh noes! omNomNom!
Ben Nadel is an expert. I'm usually pretty skeptical when I see/hear the word expert, but in this case it is true. His resume not only speaks for itself, but his presentations and previous work speak more volumes than his resume ever could. His extensive look at JQuery is one of the best explanations I have ever heard on it; and extremely accessible to people new to JQuery. I'm not new to JQuery and it gave me a ton of "Ah-ha!" moments where I groked things I hadn't realized I did not get.
Do you have a killer business idea? How about 999? I found both of these on Seth Godin's blog. Very, very cool (and open) proposal for serious businesses.
I do not know how many times I have heard the worlds "RPG Maker is too limited for my vision" or some semblance of that sentiment around game development communities. While it does indeed fuel spur-of-the-moment engine license purchases, it also houses a much larger problem: project ineptitude. I do not think that I have seen a finished (or even alpha) project from anyone who has made this claim in any engine. It could definitely be because RPG's are hard to make. Yes, this is true, but even if you have the right tools, could you make it?
It never ceases to amaze me how people get bent out of shape about little things and infer huge things from next to nothing. I'm all for drama; otherwise I wouldn't be in the theatre. But sometimes I see drama get blown out of proportion and all I can think is "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?"
Maybe it is just me. I don't understand road rage. I cannot comprehend how someone can get so worked up over being cut off or someone driving slowly that they get out of the car and bash the person's head in or ram them constantly. It makes no sense to me at all.
I deal with the public all the time, and I very, very often have people around me flying off the handle for no apparent reason.
WHY?
So, I have refined my idea a bit on the slasher flick. I had mentioned that I wanted to do a slasher flick, and while I doubt I can get anywhere near the style of Peter's Cheerbleeders, I think it would be a fun project. Bloody, horrifically bloody and violent; and very, very fun.
After thinking and tooling around with Celtx for a while, I realized that I wanted something a little different than the typical teen in the cabin sub-genre of slasher flicks. I began to think about the various slasher flicks that I've seen in the past and thought that something was missing from the lot; a western slasher.
Now, the very idea of setting anything as a "Western" suddenly brings up the imagery of cowboys, guns, and lots of period costumes and sets. So I began to try to figure out how to drop the requirements a bit. First off, I had always pictured it as a "cabin in the woods" film, so the idea of homesteaders trying to make it in the middle of nowhere sounded like a fun idea. And while homesteaders had a gun or two or three (depending on how many children they had and how many they could afford), it could up the ante a bit for the murderers as well. Especially since guns and ammo were limited by funds; and homesteaders were often scraping funds no matter how many movies have them hootin' and hollarin' and shooting their guns into the air.
I was not thinking about undead murderers or cannibalistic folk, but down-and-out villians who saw an easy way to attempt to take over at least part of a ranch with a hairbrained scheme. Yes, the idea is melodramatic, but it mainly sets up the situation, and there are a ton of examples of extremely stupid criminals. The rest is a game of cat and mouse with a good chunk of mayhem thrown in; especially since homesteaders are survivors by nature and not about to let themselves be killed easily.
Right now I'm writing on the initial draft so it will be very, very, very rough. But it can only get better from there, right?
When I was heading home from work yesterday, the radio station I was listening to played a "crank it or yank it" tune. The idea is pretty simple and has a ton of different names on other stations (and some with the same name). Listeners vote for whether they want to hear the song ever again. It was Sammy Hagar's "Loud". I missed the final verdict, but from the polls at the time, "Loud" was going to be yanked from the airwaves; and I agreed.
"Loud" was a revisiting of what made Sammy sound good back in the early 1980's with his album VOA and the now-classic hit "I Can't Drive 55". I have never been a big Hagar fan (in that I don't go out of my way to buy his music or go to his concerts), but I have always had a rather healthy enjoyment of his music. "Loud" is definitely the exception. Whereas I enjoyed a number of his solo albums and work with Van Halen, "Loud" felt like it was trying entirely too hard to be "I Can't Drive 55", but without the fun, edge, and excitement.
The formula is there. The song sounds like Sammy. It is structured the same as his other songs. But the vibrance is not there. There is no excitement. It is a formula without the life behind it. It feels about the same as being a lit major studying algebra. It just doesn't connect. Whereas his previous work had a certain life that caught fire like a PhD in engineering hitting the cherry equation to make the project click. AC/DC's albums have that life; their similarity is their comfort. "Loud" sounds like his other stuff but without the impact.
If you haven't played on InstantAction.com, I suggest that you fire up a new tab, install the plugin and get playing. It's a great gaming site that offers some damn fun games in your browser.
Here is one of the best commentaries on why you should be playing Legions (as well as how to play it on IA).
But the guys at InstantAction also turned me on to one of the coolest books that the world has been waiting for since the writing of the original (say that a couple of times fast!):
286 used & new available from USD 0.96
Save a Kentucky Treasure!!!!
Please help us get the word out by forwarding this message to as many people as you can.
Thank you!
Dear Friends,
Kentucky Repertory Theatre (formerly Horse Cave theatre) is fighting for its survival. Caught in this nation’s ever-tightening recession, this unusual, 33-year old, Equity (fully professional) Theatre located in rural, low-income Hart County, Kentucky, is struggling to meet its basic operating expenses and to maintain even a nucleus staff. As a result, the Theatre is mounting a “Save a Kentucky Treasure” Campaign to raise $350,000 before March 15, 2009 to support the Theatre’s basic operating expenses. The Theatre must meet this goal for its doors to remain open.
In 1977, when a group of visionaries first founded Kentucky Repertory Theatre (then known as Horse Cave Theatre), not many people believed that it would be possible to produce world class, Equity (fully professional) Theatre in Horse Cave. Ours is farming country. This tiny town is surrounded by cedar-covered hills and rolling pastures. Beneath them is a honeycomb of caves that have attracted tourists and spelunkers for over 150 years. But a theatre? Producing classic plays? Many doubted.
That was 33 years ago. Since then, Kentucky Repertory Theatre has produced season after season of great classic plays, the best new works, and an education program that now touches the lives of 15,000+ students from kindergarten through adult years annually, many of them with little to no exposure to live theatre and starved for creative outlets.
In 1977, most of Horse Cave’s historic downtown was composed of derelict buildings, several of them empty. Today that same area is a registered historic district with appealing shops and restaurants occupying carefully restored buildings. As the owner of five buildings in the historic district and the first organization to initiate adaptive re-use projects here, Kentucky Repertory Theatre is an important catalyst in the effort to save one of Kentucky’s very appealing small towns.
Now entering its 33rd year with a history of careful stewardship of its resources and a balanced budget, this remarkable Theatre suddenly finds itself in a serious financial shortfall brought on by the deepening recession. This fall, inflated gasoline prices pushed theatre attendance beyond the means of many of our patrons and nearly all schools. Several donors, even some long-term, major supporters, have notified us that they cannot contribute this year. As a result, we are seeing declines in both attendance and donations totaling $200,000 in lost income, nearly 1/3rd of our total budget. Most of this has occurred since September.
Kentucky Repertory Theatre fills a unique niche among American cultural assets. Please help this Theatre, identified by USA Today as one of “…10 great places to see the lights way off Broadway,” and recipient of Kentucky’s most significant award for arts organizations, Governor Steve Beshear’s 2008 Governor’s Award in Community Arts.
Contribute today to Kentucky Repertory Theatre’s “Save a Kentucky Treasure” campaign to raise $350,000 before March 15, 2009, a goal we must meet in order to fulfill our financial obligations, maintain a core staff, and mount another season. No gift is too large or too small. Your donation will truly make a difference.
Most sincerely, Mail checks to: Kentucky Repertory Theatre, P.O. Box 215, Horse Cave, Ky. 42749, or call 270-786-1200, or go to www.kentuckyrep.org.
Mary Margaret Villines For more information, see: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090201/SCENE05/902010333/1011/SCENE
A great parody video that actually bites pretty deep. As linked to me by WebRat.
We have a commercial for Dodge trucks that is running on our local radio stations. The commercial plays out like this (paraphrased):
"I'm a truck driver. I drive big rigs all day long and I know trucks. When I get home, I love to drive my Dodge."
That's the base message of the ad. And it makes sense to me. I've known a lot of truck drivers in my time, and they definitely know a lot about the trucks that they drive. It makes sense that they would choose to drive good-q2uality, heavy-duty trucks in their regular "off-duty" time as well as when they're on the clock. The authenticity of the messages is almost self-fulfilling.
But then at the end of the ad, there is a disclaimer. Aside from the various APR commentary and such that is included in such commercials, there is a notice that the commercial is not based on actual customer experience. Which throws a huge red flag in my face. Could the marketing department or ad agency not find a real truck driver who is a Dodge fanatic? I know several, and while some would definitely not be the poster-children of articulate radio ads, there are a lot who are very articulate and very, very supportive of their trucks.
Living in Idaho, I know people who have gotten in fights over their favorite truck being dissed by someone with a different favorite. While those people are not the fans that marketing hype want to focus on (they are already caught), there are a ton of enthusiastic and well-spoken fans ready to scream down the competition. Why not make use of them? Especially in ads that will otherwise deflate themselves when it comes out that the whole thing was a marketing sham?
If you happen to have a fanbase, make some good use of them. People like to state their opinions, and if they love you...let them.
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