Artix Entertainment

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Back from an amazing trip. I knocked off my article for the paper this morning and started and finished my 5 page English paper in a couple hours, giving me most of my break now to just write! Wait, I was already doing that…

Artix Entertainment is an amazing company. I have been a fan of their games since 2004.* In that time, they have become (in my opinion), the most outstanding game company in the world. Through a crazy cause and effect chain** too long to discuss here, I got to meet my heroes.***

It is often the case that when meeting heroes, we are let down. This was not the case here. These people are amazing and from seeing the office, they are an amazing company to work for.****

I got to see how the games are made and how they all operate. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I expected epic.***** I was most impressed by how organized they are and how well they stick to their launch schedule.

Meeting the teams behind each of the outstanding browser-based games was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I will have the amazing opportunity again.

 

*In true AE spirit, there will be asterisks in this post.

**First, I stepped on a butterfly. Then it got up, grew arms and attacked me!

***And their weapons!

****The clowns drain your health budget pretty fast though.

*****I even got to work on the servers!

Streetlight Rant

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Is it really this hard to keep a traffic light going? For the last four days, each morning, the traffic lights outside my apartment have been working. Then, each afternoon they break, and begin blinking red while the walk light goes dim.

I understand that things are hard to fix, but I don’t get this one. It seems like there is some sort of computer bug on it. Or maybe someone is doing it on purpose. I can see it now, at the traffic control center:

“Hey, its 11:00 A.M again Bill, wadaya think we should do? Should we shut off the light again?”

“Oh, sure man, go ahead. What’s the problem with one less pedestrian walking the streets anyway? Just be sure to have it on in the morning.”

“Lemme get that switch!”

 

Then again I hear computers do run these things. Maybe it is more like this over at traffic control central:

“00100110100010110?”

“0101110010001100100101.”

“1101001011!”

“2!”

“2? 2!!!! *bzzzzzzt….*”

 

I mean it though, this has been four days in a row, at the same time. This would not be a problem were it not Hennipen Avenue and people were not busy as hell and in a rush. No one wants to wait. I have seen cars come withen inches of each other. We kinda need traffic lights. One light is out and that is all it took for people to forget how to drive.

Life Capture

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Another Life Capture post. I took two because I did not like the first one, but looking back at it it had its own interesting quality so I uploaded it and the second one. Watch for the ghostly reflections in this first one and compare to the person walking across the street… sort of interesting.

 

 And the second one has a bit more action going on.

 

 I like them both. Was sort of fun to take too, had to crouch down in the skyway to get the right angle.

Life Capture

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The interesting reflection on the side of the building was what caught my eye. I think it is being caused by the nearby one with the odd shaped glass. It almost looked like water, and was very relaxing to the eyes.
Walking back I saw someone taking a picture of a building as well, just as I saw someone taking a picture through the skyway roof. It is nice to know I am not the only one wanting to snap a few pictures of the world around me.

 

Crazy Patterns and Trippy Colors

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I wanted to take a bit to share how the background of this site was made. It is a piece I have received comments about how complex or difficult it must have been. It is simpler than it appears. I made this one just yesterday.

Quick to create

Lots of pictures, so hit continue reading to see how I started the site background and how I made the above picture. I don’t want to flood the homepage with too many images or it will load slower.

Continue reading →

Faster

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Only one post today but it’s good… a story!

 

Faster

By Zachary Storch

Jeff Hansen watched another tree fall to the whirling blades of the tree clearer, hearing the lurching of wood followed by a loud thud as the trunk landed onto the cleared grass, throwing up a cloud of musty dirt. The smells of sap and overworked, overheating motors was carried through the logging camp on sawdust.

 “How much is a log worth anyway?” Jeff shouted to Head Logging Supervisor Matt Kaleb.

“We don’t get paid by the tree Jeff, we get paid for clearing them all so buildings can be built,” Head Logging Supervisor Matt Kaleb smacked a mosquito off his arm as it jabbed into him. It fell down to the ground, dead like the trees but silent. “We got someone coming down here today who says he has something that will change our work forever, make it faster.” Continue reading →

Life Capture

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I took this one wondering how often people look up. Walking back from lunch I was put at ease. I saw a man walking with his wife along the sky-way into the IDS building stop and remove from his pocket a small camera. He held it up and snapped a picture through the glass very much like my life capture I took not over half an hour before.
This was a fun one to take though. I had one person look up to see what I was looking at and turned her face down with a awed expression. The world is an amazing place.