The new Nintendo Wii is the funniest gaming device I have ever seen, but watching people play it just cracks me up. The link below takes you to their brilliant advertising campaign.

What I find interesting is how much they are marketing this as a family device rather than something for serious gamers. Nintendo are increasingly trying to expand the gaming market (smart move) by making it accessible to more people. The Wii seems to do that well, but I wonder how long the appeal will last. Most people that play games reguarly seem to start out laughing and joking, but then they become more serious (in a good way generally). Can the Wii offer that or is it just a gimmick? The answer probably lies in making a hit game that uses the innovative technology in a way that won’t cross-over better to other platforms.

The marketing videos are here.

Edit: I wonder how many people will accidentally throw the controller at the TV while trying to throw a baseball.

This looks like it could be an interesting film, but what really interests me is the excellent composition and lighting in this still. Look how clearly the girls are framed by the L-shape foreground. The eye is also drawn to them through the high contrast of black and white and further drawn to their faces which are drawn simply and, once again, with high contrast. The image is nicely balanced by the use of the scroll pattern on the far left. It’s heavy enough to balance out the image, but not distracting enough that it draws you away from the girls. A simple triangle formed with all 3 girls keeps the eye mainly focused on that group, but there is enough interest in the rest of the picture to keep it interesting (bins, broken glass and windows).

The lighting not only provides a great composition, but it’s also very atmospheric. As you would expect in a photograph, the high contrast peters out gradually in the background providing a a sense of rich depth. Finally, while most of the image is in a flat shade, certain areas are highlighted with a tecture. Check out the road, the highlight on the tree and the building. Again, this is almost a photographic style if printed in high contrast. I think it’s particulary brave to shade the road jet-black in the foreground and high-white in the background. What further contrast of shades could there be? And still it looks like the same surface.

This is a quite brilliant animated short. It starts out all lovely with a rabbit running through the fields, and turns into a waking nightmare. Really horrible to watch, but still excellent.

From an interview with Run Wrake:

The story is basically a very simple morality tale about greed - the dangers of greed and exploring nature. It came about when I found some 1950’s stickers in a junk shop about 20 years ago. When I was moving the studio out of Soho about 2 years ago, I fond them again in the bottom of the drawer and thought it would be great to make a film out of them. There were about 200 different stickers.

Wrake took these stickers, scanned them into Photoshop and then used After Effects to animate the parts. Quite often working with found images just seems showy, but in this film it works really well to turn, what I believe were always creepy illustrations, into their true nature.

I think I may get a complex about rabbits if I see too many more scary rabbit creations (Watership Down, that episode of Spaced with the art play thing, etc.).

The film can be seen here.

After taking a little break from listening to my song I still like its general construction. It has problems and is a bit rough around the edges, but for a first song-writing attempt I’m quite proud.

The other point I need to consider is that mostly I’m listening to the notation as midi sound, which on my soundcard is quite bad. I can hear what sections sound like on my guitar, but I need people to play drums, bass and a second guitar before I will hear the full sound. I’ll worry about all that later. Right now I figure if I get it sounding good in midi, it’s only going to improve when I port it over to real musical instruments.

But anyway I’ve done my first draft as it were which feels good. Why I couldn’t just write an acoustic guitar piece, I don’t know. Maybe because I don’t have an acoustic guitar.

Mum and Dad went to Lincolnshire today to look at puppies.  Apparently they can only walk a few steps before they fall over. Hopefully this is just because they’re babies and it’s not a permanent condition.
Pictures were taken, but father used the automatic focus and it automatically focused on the wrong thing.  We have clear shots of the bitch we are not getting but frankly I’m unimpressed — even though they basically all look the same.

So end of November we should be collecting a brand new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  Many of this breed always look angry (due to their eyebrows), but the blurred picture suggests Mum may have chosen one with a cute look.  But being a puppy (and blurred) it’s a bit difficult to tell for sure.

Yes I am writing a song.

I figured that since I have a habit of singing to myself for hours everyday, I may as well have something to show (?) for it.

It’s one of the most exhausting things I have ever done. I’ve been listening to the same tune over and over again. It changes gradually (otherwise I wouldn’t really be writing), but basically I’ve been listening to the same thing over and over again. All day long. Over and over. Hour upon hour.

Why is it difficult to take a break?

So earlier, I thought the song was quite good (for such an early stage)

Now. Now I can’t stand it.

The temptation is to stop screw it up and toss it in the music bin. Lukily I don’t have a music bin, so the song is safe.

Much, much potential here. It’s amazing what people are doing creativily through the Internet these days. They follow the Creative Commons ethos as well (if they get permission). The work doesn’t quite hit the mark for me, but the potential is really big. The Internet is bringing on a new wave of creativity. This is a good example.

www.tower8.net

Can you imagine how great this would be, if made into a film? Dr Claw would fit in quite nicely, but you would probably have to change the other characters a lot more. Make it serious. Make it dark. Keep it animated, but animate it in black and white. Take the annoying characters and make them likable. Get rid of the lecture they always give at the end of the show, but make subtle in jokes about it. The smoking joke is set up right here.

by Bob

Would they ever allow it?

Captain’s blog, stardate 97343…

What a lame way to start this blog (I don’t even really watch Star Trek). But it doesn’t matter because it will gradually fall to the bottom of a long pile of random musings.

For too long I’ve been trying to blog about relevant things that are important and are perhaps even interesting. Now I’m giving myself permission to talk about myself.

This will be self indulgent, but it will also be revealing. It is my way of splurging my brain into the written form and being less private. It may be so boring that everyone will miss the revealing things. Unless they have developed the ability to search and scan text.

The important thing is this diary is available to anyone who wants to read it. To anyone who wants to discover me. To anyone who is willing to look through unedited prose. This is not supposed to be greate literature; if that happens it happens by accident.
I will be honest with it as if it were a private diary, but I’ll remain discreet when discussing anyone else. This is supposed to reveal me; not anyone else. It’s supposed to make me vunerable.

If you read, you will discover things about me. Probably at the same time as I am discovering things about myself. I introspect a lot. I keep thinking I have reached a point where I need know no more. But the journey is interesting and really concerns how I find my place in the world. How can this wondering soul find his place in this universe when he doesn’t seem to fit in at all? The answer I believe, is that I will have to make a place for myself. Maybe in the corner, maybe on the mantel piece. I really don’t know.

This is my journey to become more me. To be the best damn Alan I can be. To stop being ashamed of who I am. To grow confident in my shell. And to share myself with the world.

I don’t want my life to be private any more.

That has always been distructive.

I want to be free of that.

I want to expose myself.

I mean that quite literally. For years I was ashamed of my body, but I am over that now and I feel a need to show it off. I want to feel comfortable showing it off. I may post naked pictures of me. You have been warned!

If you want to know anything about me, you will find out.

If there is anything you don’t want to know about me, you should not read.

These are thoughts which are quite random. They are the things on my mind. To be fair, many of my thoughts are concerned with the psychology of intelligence and education. But I won’t talk about that here because I write about it elsewhere. This site, therefore, will probably be a more extreme version of my thoughts. It will be edited by interest, and if I don’t post for days on end it does not mean I am in a coma.

This is a cathartic process. But one I share with anyone who wishes to read.

I know I am an interesting character; I know not if that is a good thing or not.