- Tonight was the first night of my game design class. Overall, I think it well, considering how crappy I was feeling throughout the day. And making things worse, I was also somewhat nervous up until class-time. Students can make or break any class, but thankfully, everyone tonight seems really cool and decent, so I doubt there will be any foreseeable problems (at least the kind brought on my the “Street Fighter rools, everything else suxors!!! type, which I’m always afraid of getting, and have thus far been luckily free of).
And again, it’s a fairly interesting bunch, which this time includes a doctor and an artist who deals with virtual reality and robots or something similar (I believe she’s also a professor as well).
My primary concern is that I’m not wasting anyone’s money; there’s nothing worse than paying hundreds of dollars for a class, only to have some dumb-ass butcher up a potentially awesome subject matter. I honestly feel like I did a pretty good job my first time out, but I’m still new to the game and there’s always room for improvement. While I am sticking close to what I did during the previous session, I am making changes here and there.
Tonight I mostly just spoke with the class, finding out who they were, what their familiarity and interest levels are with video games, and the such. Perhaps some were turned off with me just questioning them the whole time, though it was completely necessary. I ended the evening with a brief talk about the very first games and even had two student play the first interactive computer game ever, Spacewar!
In addition to have students play a video game in class right off the back, I already have a “field trip” planned for them; I’m taking them to an IGDA event in two weeks. There were initial plans to have a very rough demo of my new game on display, but it’s been nixed. Just as well, I hate rushing on a game.
- Steve was bearer of both good and bad news. First the bad: because of the “success” of American Dad, it’s time-slot come this May when it officially premieres has been bumped up an hour, from 9:30 to 8:30 on Sundays, which is normally occupied by Arrested Development. And because of this, Fox is ordering that show to have it’s season shortened. Jesus Christ, WHAT THE FUCK?!?!
So Fox is basically forcing the funniest, smartest, most original show on television today to “make way” for easily the most idiotic, most derivative, and most importantly, unfunny cartoon in recent memory (and that’s saying a lot when you have shit like Drawn Together on the air), all because it popped a big Nielsen rating. Any idiot knows that anything is going to draw high numbers after the Super Bowl. As I didn’t have enough reasons to despise Fox already. I can’t believe the network would not put their most critically acclaimed show after the game in hopes of boosting its ratings. Yeah, give that slot to the show that’s a piss-poor carbon copy of another show that they didn’t even like in the first place (Family Guy). Also, have that one guy who can’t even do one funny show and give him too. Real smart Fox, real smart.
And the best part is that once the second season is over, Fox will quietly pull the plug, so we can all add it to the ever-growing list of shows that were cancelled purely due to the network’s own incompetence:
Futurama
Firely
Wonderfalls
The Long Gunmen
Millenium
Ben Stiller Show
Get A Life
But what’s the best part? I bet you anything both Family Guy and American Dad will cancelled by this time next year.
Anyway, what was the good news? Nickelodeon is launching the “Rewind Collection” and its first release is Clarrisa Explains It All. But the real good news is that we might finally see DVD releases of classics like Pete & Pete, Salute Your Shorts, and You Can’t Do That On Television! On can only hope…
– On Yay Hooray!, I came across some info on the genius that is Crispin Glover. Regarding his latest film (here’s another link to the trailer), it recently premiered at the Sundance film festival, which lead to this hilarious write-up:
“… and then there was Crispin Glovers What Is It?, which featured not only manual stimulation of a handicapped man (by a naked woman in an animal mask, no less), but oral sex involving someone with Down syndrome, salted snails, a minstrel in blackface, the most racist song I have ever heard and Shirley Temple juxtaposed with swastikas. This wasnt just pushing the envelope; this was shoving the entire freaking Postal Service off the rim of the Grand Canyon.”
Say it with me folks: MOVIE OF THE YEAR!
- I’ve been playing this a lot lately. I’m not at all familiar with the band, but I do dig the game.
- And this has to be either the stupidest or the most brilliant Star Wars toy of all time. It’s all about the eyes. Man, I so wish I could have been there with that toy exec the moment he realized that “Vader” rhymes with “Tater”. Genius!
- No one else I know has really voiced this concern, but this whole trend of wacky breakdancing with other people’s heads has really got to stop (though I rather enjoy the “Singing in the Rain” remix in this clip).
- Ready for some He-Man & She-Ra cosplay? Sure.
How about some Ronald McDonald cosplay from the Philippines? You got it.
- And finally, I’m really bummed out. Why? Because not too long ago, I stumbled across a rockin’ video by the German disco group Dschingis Khan, and have been meaning to post it here for ages. But once I finally get around to it, I discover it’s no longer available! I am guilty of passing it along all over the place, plus I’d have to imagine that it was pretty popular to begin with, costing whomever a ton in bandwidth. I do have the saved video on my end, of course, but I have to worry about bandwidth as well. So until I can figure something out, all I can offer is a picture of them and an assurance that the video is fucking awesome.
EDIT: I was wrong. The vid can be viewed here. And yes, I know the guy looks like the bad guy from Flash Gordon. That’s what makes it so damn cool.
