PAX is coming in a few days, and what do I think? It’s gonna be a caffeine and booze fueled romp as a collective hive mind grabs Seattle by the balls. That, or a fun con at the very least. Being to cover the entire con is an impossibility that should only be tried by seasoned pros, so I shall predict what some bits and pieces of the con are going to be like. Tune in now!
Where is Your God Now? 53: I Went to PAX and all I got was a Bunch of Swag and This Podcast
Published on August 20, 2007 by narbyehoot | 0 commentsCategories: Audio, Where is Your God Now?, Culture, Theories, Jack Thompson, PAX
EndgameRadio Prime: Episode 157
Published on May 30, 2007 by zug | 0 commentsCategories: Audio, Endgameradio Prime, Theories, Controversy
This week we dip into some recent and hot Eve Online contraversy. Supposedly some dramas went down, when the Goonfleet, (the in-game fleet of Something Awful forum goons,) supposedly organized a dramabomb, fingers are pointed but the conflict escalated to the point that forums were taken down. The Goonfleet accuses the makers of Eve Online of some things. Eve Online is one of the best ’sandbox’ games where players themselves regulate the game and the economy, and for this reason, we’re fascinated by it. We think it would be pretty cool to make make a reality tv show based on Eve; hire a group of people to play the game ’serious’ and treat it like running a real company; have managers, supervisors, enforcers, etc. Or play it completely offline, where someone acts as a commander and only uses traditional online means of communication, like chat, ventrilo and forums, to direct an in-game organization, similar to how there’d be a man in an office telling a fleet to do things.
Ideacompleteification
Published on April 25, 2007 by zug | 0 commentsCategories: ?, Theories
My friends and I are at the helm of a new idea that we think will do really well; after I’m done and settled into my move I am thinking about cleaning off my mental desk and putting all of my steam into this new idea. It will truly be the culmination of my college education, internet ‘awareness,’ and life experiences. Along with all of this, I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about it, as well as around things like the process of being creative, and other things like project management. Living in Hollywood, being around creative people, or rich or successful people; I’ve made a few observations.
Assuming you have an idea you would like to get ‘made.’ The more people you get involved with, the less your ideas become ‘yours’ but theoretically, the more likely they will get finished. At the very least, there’s more man-hours available to produce products. There’s exceptions of course, because getting other people to do exactly what you want is hard. I guess I’m talking more so about true artistic collaboration, where the artists and creative people involved have open communication, egos are checked at the door, etc.
Spectrum of Ideacompleteification
100% yours - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0% yours
harder to complete - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -done
On one end of the spectrum, the idea is completely yours but you spend your entire life doing it and only produce one thing. On the other end, you have so many people helping the either the original idea disappears or it becomes a gift to the world. Like an open source project?
It’s totally possible, of course, to take one of your ideas and finish it yourself. It just takes lots more time. To be realistic, however, especially having a day job, your hours are sacred. I’ve learned a lot recently about ‘man hours,’ and what creative people are capable of producing, and in how much time. I have a lot of really creative friends that do various amounts of ‘creation’, and various amounts of completion.
You have to find a compromise. You have to weigh out keeping an idea for yourself, and then actually getting the idea into the world. I guess you set out before anything and take note of elements of the idea, and say which things you’re willing to compromise over.
Tell me if I’m wrong or if you disagree. Trying to get all this dust out of my head and share it with the real world.
Procrastination Formula
Published on March 14, 2007 by oizys | 0 commentsCategories: Theories, Psychology
U=EV/ID
Where: Desire to Complete Task (U) = Expectation of Success (E) * Value of Completion (V) / Immediacy of Task (I) * Personal Sensitivity to Delay (D)
Not my theory, but I’ll buy it. This theory comes from a psychologist who’s spent 10 years studying procrastination (or maybe 10 years putting off his eventual study and thesis on the subject, and a month working on it). “Real” Science doesn’t look much more professional than my style of Phở Science.
Boing Boing: Science of procrastination or go directly to Procrastination Central
P.S. You may notice this article is from January. I guess I just kept putting off posting this.
TGIF
Published on by oizys | 0 commentsCategories: Journal, Theories, Google
Maybe this one is specific to the west coast or to SoCal, but I’ve noticed an alarming trend. About 60-70% of the grocery stores I go into have one (and only one) checkout clerk who reminds me of Dan Aykroyd in mannerism if not in physicality. They usually are good at the quick smile and shallow witticism, but you can tell they’ve told a joke or two in their time. Is this the fallback career for the Laugh Factory contestants? I’m not sure, but I figured it was as poignant a scientific assertion as any. And like a good theory, I get to name it.
I’m going to call it the TGIF theory for Think Grocer Is Friday. Of course the real reason I’m doing this is there is a definitive lack of good google links from the words ‘grocer’ and ‘friday’, so I figured if there’s anything I can trump it’s this. Hey at least this post won’t serve to increase our google index on “but I poop from there“. Or will it?
Spexercise
Published on February 17, 2007 by oizys | 2 comments »Categories: Journal, MMOs, World of Warcraft, Theories, Exergaming, Addiction, Vocabulary, Psychology
spex·er·cise [spehks-er-size]
–noun .
- Doing a repeated activity that is painful or tedious with the intent of building up skill or attributes, on a virtual character
- Exercise for your specs, ’speccing out’
Example: “I’m going to see how many whelps I can kill in 1 hour… starting now.. and GO”
Example: “Anyone here going to hit the raid (gym)? I need someone to spot me.”
Example: Murloc villages may not have much variety, but they make for good spexercise
[Origin: 2000+, ’specs’ + ‘pectorals’ + ‘exercise’]
But I love gatherings. Isn’t that ironic?
Published on January 8, 2007 by oizys | 0 commentsCategories: Journal, Movies, World of Warcraft, Theories, Voice Chat
Have you ever noticed that most guys on ventrillo and teamspeak (especially recorded conversations) sound like Randal from Clerks?
Maybe I’ll coin this the Randalization Property of Sound.
Drama Theory
Published on January 3, 2007 by oizys | 8 comments »Categories: Journal, Funny, Second Life, Rumors, Something Awful, Cosplay, Diagrams, Theories, Sarcasm
Ok while at dinner tonight and talking about Goth scene drama, I made a connection to Cosplay scene drama that may have unlocked a new theory for looking at ‘drama’.
Coincidently, Pen’s show tonight helped me think more about this theory and validate it, so here goes:
I call it the Drama Coefficient (or the Drama Factor for those less likely to Coefficize).