Retrospect SUCKS

I just reread the previous post and I gave away the concept. I'm an idiot.

Anyways, the coding is coming along. There was a bit of frustration because Gamemaker would not update my changes. I was "accepting" the changes but the information on the objects were not updating correctly. It felt like the editor side of things wasn't cooperating.

The bug didn't last long and I was able to push forward. I have the second weapon nearly done and adding some effects to it to differentiate from the cannon shot.

I just have to think "perseverance" and get this done.

--HardWearJunkie

Okay, New Focuses (Or Is It Foci?)

I've put the drawing thing aside until I can get much better at it. Instead I'm coding a prototype shoot 'em up game (side scrolling) that incorporates a shooting scheme.

First, all enemies drop power-ups. Some drop a specific type while others will randomly drop one of three. Each power-up will charge that type of weapon on the player's ship to the maximum amount of the next power level. The problem is that the higher the power level is for the weapon the shorter its duration.

For example: the Level 5 charge of the cannons shoots in many directions but constant fire will deplete it in a scant 10 seconds. The only way to keep the weapon level is to destroy another enemy and pick up the power-up it drops.

This does sound simple when you look at the first few levels where the enemies can only take a few hits before being destroyed. In later stages enemies can take more damage and take more charge of your weapons, thus making those power-ups harder to acquire. In fact, the player might end up concentrating on killing just a few of the enemies at a time in order to maintain maximum weapon power.

This is where two other types of weapons come into play. I don't want to give away the concept, but each weapon has strengths and weaknesses that make them ideal in different situations. Switching between weapons will allow the player to approach waves and bosses in different ways.

Or, at least that is my hope. This experiment might go to the crapper if I cannot get it right. Here's to hard work.

--HardWearJunkie

Nothing But the Truth

Just want to say it: drawing is hard. I must learn baby steps but I want to jump to jaw dropping gorgeous NOW.

I have no patience.

That Is a Lot of Decibels

The other day I brought my dad to a medical appointment for an MRI. I was the one who took him into the room after removing all items that could be affected (including my glasses). The only things on me that were metallic are my belt buckle, the buttons in my jeans, and the key I had that locked away my belongings.

The machine they used was LOUD. I thought MRI scanners were supposed to be quiet. I am guessing that the periodic fluctuations of the magnets and their orientation rattles the case, the floor it immediately stands on, and the magnetic materials itself. I wished I was standing there with the techs in the room; instead I was sitting in a chair in the same room as my dad and the MRI machine.

The tests took about forty minutes because they forgot one test while my dad was dismounting from the machine. It was a strange experience because even with earplugs the sound was very loud. I would say it was louder than a rock concert. Which concert? Pick any one; I am willing to bet that the MRI machine was much louder.

All through this the "safe" key was dangling on my wrist. Not once did it sway towards the machine. I was disappointed because I thought I would at least feel a slight tug from my belt. Nothing happened. I am sure that if I had my Android phone it would have been wiped clean of everything.

My Gut Feeling

I need to exercise but I'm too lazy to start on my own. I keep finding excuses to not exercise that I don't exercise at all. Not even the meager five or six simple reps that I liked.

What will it take? Probably a goal, but it has to be a good one. Just saying that I want to lose weight is not enough. I probably have to attach a woman to this goal. And there I go making me a selfish bastard.

(Just realized that "bastard" is written with one hand.)

(Also realized I missed a week. I did return so it isn't that bad.)

Their Words, Not Mine

I am not a connoisseur of art. I would not know what good art is, even if it bit me in the ass.

However, there is an artist out there whose art I love. Her online name is loish and I found her art through DeviantArt. (Put away the dirty thoughts.) Her pictures make me jealous of her skills, but the way she uses color and the textures that she implements in her pictures is amazing to me. Her skill shows brilliantly in the grunge pieces she makes, especially "Entertainment System". I cannot help but stare at the piece. I've commented on the piece before but I will say it again: I neither hate nor love "Entertainment System", but it does enthrall me. I rarely see it and I have to admit it is not spectacular or mind blowing to most anyone. For me, personally, I must drink in the sight and look at every line, every color, and futilely dive into the "painting". Just thinking about the piece is making me relive the first unclarified emotions and sensations I had at first glance.

Now I'm tearing up. Artists seem to have that power.

--HardWearJunkie

Define Love Before Someone Gets Hurt

The most cited reason for divorce is that your spouse cheated on you. He (or She) went and dated/kissed/slept with a person other than yourself.

I can understand that these activities are normally reserved for the person one commits to when they say "I Do". Whenever those vows are said I don't hear "And to have sex with only this person."

Why do we "believe" that sex should only be done with one person? Why should the act of sex be exclusive between two people? The reasons for having sex is biological: either you're trying to have a baby or you're trying to relieve the urges of trying to have a baby. I can't say anything for the women but men have those urges, just in a different way (BONERS!).

But back to my point. Divorce on the grounds of extramarital relations does not hold water. This way of thinking assumes that a couple got married just for the sex. And I don't believe that is the reason to spend ten thousand dollars on a ceremony, reception, and a cake of the wrong flavor.

A good reason to get divorced is that there is no love in the relationship. They can care for one another but that connection between the two that happened at the ceremony is no longer there however much time has passed. This comes down to the True Love theory that everyone would like to believe in. We profess in Love. We argue for Love. We say that we want Love.

What we do not do is Love. We. Do. Not. Love.

Love is a choice. No one can coerce you to love another person. You can say you do, but until you choose to Love, there will be no Love from you. There is no such thing as Love at First Sight. There is the choice to Love. You must give it freely or you're just lying to everyone, including yourself.

There are two implications with this way of Love. (1)Love is your responsibility, thus you must take care with Love. (2) Love is not a stimulus.

With (1) everyone who says they are in Love are not taking the weight and gravity of giving of one's self to another. There are no easy ways to Love, there is only one way: to give of yourself to another. No amount of flowers or chocolate or gifts are going to get you Love. They may get you attention but they do not get you Love.

With (2) we now get into the main problem with society's view of Love. Sex is a stimulus. It is a biological tool of nature and we must recognize it as such. Love is a choice, a product of humankind's social consciousness. Sex and Love are not the same. The two cannot be equated.

Sex and Love are highly personal, BUT THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. People all over the world have Sex and not love the other person. A marriage full of Love can have little to no sex from month to month (or week to week, depending on stamina). So to cite infidelity for grounds of divorce should be the incorrect argument. A more accurate argument should be a failure in trust. It seems a typical "cheating" spouse will hide the affair from their wife/husband. The sexual act should not be alarming; what should be alarming is how long the offended spouse was made unaware. This is a better reason for divorce because the "cheating" spouse could not trust his/her partner to act rationally to the infidelity. Without trust there is no relationship and no longer a marriage.

However, the "victim" spouse can choose to stay with her/his partner IF both recognize that there is still Love in the relationship. They must work on their trust issues, figure out where the trouble spots are, and see if they still Love each other after all that has happened.

We are so used to using divorce as the escape clause in a relationship that we don't work to recognize just how much Love there is.

--HardWearJunkie

What We Deserve

For the most part each person wants more. More stuff. More options. More food. More money. More of MORE.

America has had this sense of more ever since the 1950's when our industrial companies were pushed into overdrive to create more stuff. Mostly from oil, but still more stuff. We explored into the (short) reaches of space. We built more buildings than we ever needed. We filled in a lot of the areas usually called wilderness. (Now we call them "urban sprawl".) We now produce more food than we can adequately eat, though many citizens are trying to disprove that.

And yet we seem to have lost a sense of self, that inner emotion that swells one's self with elation. Maybe somewhere in our thoughts we think, or know, that we are not what we want to be. To partly explain what I mean, lets take reality shows as an example. On one end we watch rich people party, do their make-up, argue passionately, argue angrily, and get into fights over the most little things. With consumerism there is a sense that having money is supposed to elevate you above the problems that plague you. Now we are shown that those problems will never leave you, that money will only change you into something worse.

Then the other end shows people without much money doing crazy stunts, pranks, and other activities some would call infantile. These reality shows are driving home the point that the lives of the underprivileged are too slow or not satisfying enough, that crazy stunts are the only solution to their lives.

Note this is what I'm getting from these shows. But here is what I want to ask from this activity: where is the good from being underprivileged or from being wealthy? I'm not sure I'm seeing the "poor" being portrayed well or accurately. And I'm sure there are wealthy people out there who are working hard and using their free time for more austere activities.

Where are our hopes and dreams in these shows? Where are those poor who think about getting themselves out of the poverty they are in? Where are the rich who think about the country's future and not just about their bottom line? Where are the shows that focus on these people who actually think about the future?

Where are they? These people might be drowned out by the media blitz that reality TV drowns out daily. There might actually be shows about how to change the future for everyone but I have yet to see a commercial for this type of show.

I want every American to feel that the future is going to be awesome, but we as a society have to stop looking at each other's faults and look to the good in every single person.

Having Something to Say

It has been months since I added an article to this site. I am sure no one follows this, but I accept that. What I should not accept is the non-commitment to the site. Although I have been active, I have not been faithful. For that I regret not keeping to this journal.

Thus I will commit one writing session a week to this journal. This is not to keep up appearances but to say that I am writing and that I have an obligation to something. For the next year I will post once a week at the least. And each post will go up the next morning at 6 AM.

There it is. And here I begin with this post.

--HardWearJunkie 

Besides the "Big Game"

I couldn't stand to watch the game. It wasn't my Niners playing and that hurt.

However, I did peek in every so often to watch a few (awful) plays and see how far down the hill the game went. And I did spot the Budweiser commercial (that was cute).

I might have seen them in a different order, but I then remember seeing the Coca-Cola commercial with "America the Beautiful".

That hit home pretty hard for me. I like listening to other languages, though I still find it hard to listen to tele-novellas because the acting seems so stilted. (Now that I think about it, I have a difficult time with soaps here in the States.)

Listening to where the beats fell for the alternate languages in the song was something special. I've never heard this song sung so sweetly and tenderly. Even when the alternate language had more syllables made my heart tug ever so lovingly.

And I would have been fine at that, except I then went on the Internet to find the commercial and found out that there are a lot of Americans who were offended by the choice for a multi-language song.

One small part of me wants to shout them down. One small part of me wants to join the other "enlightened" people and degrade these imbeciles for their comments.

And then I think. Calling these xenophobes "imbeciles" would not solve this problem.

Problem. This is a problem. Although we have the Internet and allowed many more "remotely located" people to engage in conversation, we still allow our own selves to be insulated from other cultures. How? By interacting only with those who are just like our own selves.

What we ALL should be doing is talking to people who are different from ourselves and understanding one another. Instead of pointing out the terrorists and giving these terrorists the spotlight, we should shine our attention to the people who are sensible and hard working, regardless of the language they speak or the religion they worship or the food they cook.

But who am I to point fingers? Yeah, I'm just an American who grew up here in the States speaking conversational English. Yeah, my parents also speak conversational English but grew up in the Philippines learning English. Yeah, I'm an American who revels in the sound of other spoken languages because I'm finding the sound of English dull and blunt.

And, yes, I loved that commercial and Coca-Cola should play it again if they know what's good for the country.

Now That I Have Calmed Down...

I am now rooting for the Broncos to win.

So Exciting!

I am watching the San Francisco 49ers play against the Seattle Seahawks for the conference championship. It is half-time right now but I just want to say this: Kapernick makes the game just a bit too exciting; my heart skips a beat every time he runs. Doesn't matter he's setting up the team for a score because if he runs he risks his arm and his ability to throw.

And the Niners do NOT have a capable quarterback in tow.

After the Play Through: Tomb Raider (2013)

Game: Tomb Raider (2013)

Play Time: 24 hours over 5 days (with a 10 hour marathon on the last day)

Recommendation: Buy at first opportunity

This is an after action report on my experience playing Tomb Raider (2013). Before playing the game I have only heard negative reviews about the game, most notably the following remark: “The game is a game, but it is not Tomb Raider.” (WARNING: This review has a few spoilers.)

The Cons:

1) There are quick time events in the game.

A quick time event (QTE) is a spot in the game where you must press a button in response to an on screen prompt. A successful action means you get a postive result and usually continue the event to the next prompt or finish the event. A failure usually means your gruesome death. (And Lara dies in so many unpleasant ways in this game.) I do not like QTEs when I must revisit them because I failed to notice how to successfully press a button. I should be rewarded for my wit or for successfully solving a puzzle. Many times I watched Lara die the same death and it was because I didn’t know how to press a button.

2) My graphics setting should not hold me back from advancing.

This is a small gripe because my settings might have prevented me from successfully completing a guantlet event. This was not a QTE but a series of actions that I must perform in order to advance to the next safe area. I did successfully traverse all BUT the last element. And I failed the last element time and time again. The problem was that the last element was not in my field of vision. All through the gauntlet my vision was purposely looking down. The last element was actually above my field of vision, but because the gauntlet event conditioned me to look down I kept failing it. My setting were lowered at the time so I blame that for keeping me from noticing the wall. I probably would have noticed the wall better if it were glowing. (I know there is a button that will show all the spots where Lara can climb but I kept thinking the gauntlet was a QTE.)

3) There is a cast of characters in the game but very few places where I could interact with them.

Another small gripe. The writers went through the trouble of making these characters and this story with so many background elements. However, personally interacting with them was not only few and far between but they didn’t seem to give any more advice or help with the game or your progression. I wished that there was more each person could say as you talked to them.

The Pros:

1) The skill system is robust and filled with excellent uses.

The first skills you can pick up help you get bonuses as you traverse the game. Later on these bonuses help get you the more powerful skills that help you take down enemies quicker and keep you alive longer during battles. Not once did I ever regret getting a skill because each skill either built on previous skills or helped you use your tools better.

2) Lara’s weapons can be improved with a robust upgrade system.

Those bonuses I mentioned earlier help you gain scraps (I do not remember the actual term) to “buy” upgrades for your weapons. Each upgrade helps you take down enemies easier and quicker. There are the normal upgrades like larger clip size and an added scope for sniping. Then there are the other upgrades that help you traverse areas and open up previously restricted zones. One of the cool options is that the bow Lara uses can shoot a rope so you can make zip lines where you need them. Each upgrade is expensive but not so expensive that you cannot get the scrap to purchase them.

3) The action is plentiful.

In the beginning all you have is the axe tool and the bow. This is all you need because the enemies are easy and they fire arrows at a slower pace than you. In my playthrough I purposefully tried to headshot when I could because you get extra experience from a headshot and the enemy immediately stops shooting at you. Each death means closer to a skill point and, after acquiring a specific skill, more scraps from looting dead bodies. And there are many areas where enemies were plenty to shoot at.

4) The scenes are breath taking.

Yes, the action all takes place on an island but each area you open up is jaw dropping. From plane wrecks to abandoned Japanese villages to a sprawling shanty town your eyes are treated to a fantastic view. Yes, the shanty town seems unbelievable but then again the game keeps mentioning a queen that can control the weather. The artists and designers went all out and did a great job with it.

5) There are tombs that Lara can raid.

Almost all the tombs in the game are optional. You can go through the game and not once step inside an optional tomb. You would not get as many experience points or scraps for upgrades, but you can skip them. If you do then you’re robbing yourself of the quintessential Tomb Raider experience. I believe those extra areas are there for those people who call themselves Tomb Raiders. I went through the game and played every single optional tomb because this is Tomb Raider. If there were no tombs to explore then this game would be called Lara Roughing It On an Island.

6) The combat system actually works.

Instead of an clunky auto-targeting button the game lets you choose to aim your weapon. You hold down one button to go into aiming stance where your view is closer to Lara and then fire using the reticle. If you let go of the aim button your view returns to behind Lara where you can see more of the area. This is a subtle and powerful use of the camera because this causes the player to decide if looking around the character is more important than aiming down the barrel. (Throughout the game I’ve abandoned the aim view in favor of finding better cover or an unflanked position. Trust me, you never want to be flanked.)

And with stronger skills you can, on a successful dodge, play a short QTE where success means you kill an enemy or failure means you continue the battle. In my opinion that is the best use of a QTE. Also no other enemy close by can melee you while the QTE is acting out.

There are many more things I could say about this game (all of them positive) but these are the ones that stand out. I got this game on Steam for ten dollars on the Winter Sale. If I had gotten this game earlier at a higher price I would still say the same things. This is a great game and I highly recommend this.

And to the nay-sayers: this game is a Tomb Raider. So stop yelling at all of us to get off your damn lawn.