nerdflood

I’ve been flirting with Buzzword since just prior to its acquisition by Adobe and inclusion into their online office suite. The interface is gorgeous and the amount of functionality is astounding for an online document editor. However, all that sparkle comes with a cost. Every time I go to Buzzword to work on one of my documents, it takes two to three minutes to load. It first loads the “framework” then it loads the “organizer”. That’s all done in about two minutes. Then I’m greeted with my list of documents. I click on the document I want to work on, and it’s another minute and a half of loading the “editor” and then the fonts before I can begin work.

Now, don’t take this criticism as hatred. I absolutely adore this product that is lovingly draped in an essence of style and charisma. There are very few online products where I can honestly claim that. But the unnecessary load times are turning me off.

I’m currently in the process of moving my documents back to their old home. Of course, Google Docs isn’t a bed of roses, either. The Google online document editor is just so frustratingly utilitarian. I’m a fiction writer first and foremost, and I need a document editor that is not going to act as a roadblock to my creative instincts. The sleek black and neon green Buzzword interface was perfectly suited to helping me stay zoned into a particular creative mood as it struck. The sterile white and pale blue of Google Docs tries every time to convince me that I should be working on tax forms instead of fiction.

The goggles. They do nothing.

So, for the time being, I’m back in the Google family for yet another product, at least until something sexier comes along. I’ve already tried Writer from BigHugeLabs and didn’t like how constricted the interface was. Are they any other online editor suggestions people have that can keep my creative spirit kicking?

I have a few quiet moments today amidst the chaos of our average July 4th holiday festivities. A few moments in which to sit on my porch and post to my blog. Exciting, isn’t it?

This July 4th found me, my oldest son, and my neice all on a parade float together. We were promoting our church’s Christian concert series, doing so by bringing Rock Band instruments up onto a trailer and blasting Fireflight music while rocking out the entire length of the parade route. And folks, if you haven’t seen a 5-year-old rock out on a fake plastic guitar, you have not lived. Pictures are forthcoming! I obviously didn’t get an opportunity to ake any myself, seeing as how I was on the float. I did, however, play some pretty mean pretend drums.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent at my parents house with about a thousand of our closest relatives feasting on approximately eighteen different kinds of yellow foods. There was corn casserole, macaroni casserole, corn AND macaroni casserole, several potato salads, and lots and lots of pasta salads. Thank god dad grilled some beer brats or else it might have been unbearable.

Now, the youngest one is taking his mid-day nap, and the oldest boy is over at a friend’s house for a birthday party. The wife and I are just relaxing on a suspiciously cool, quiet, breezy afternon. A rarity in these parts, but a welcome one nonetheless.

This evening will be fireworks at the football field. Then a mad scramble to get the kids to bed before they explode themselves after such a long day.

The wife’s mother will be visiting tomorrow and staying through the weekend, so I might not make it back online until Monday. In the meantime, let me know: what do YOUR July 4th festivities include? Feel free to comment here, or over on FriendFeed where this post will eventually end up.

Cheers!

I never take a moment to consider exactly who is going to read my blog when I create a new post for Nerdflood. Oftentimes, I don’t think about the fact that people beyond my close friends and family read this blog; and even my close friends and family don’t read it all that much (Mom? Mom, are you there? Hello, mom?)

But my morning blog stats check revealed that there are a few people not related to me (that I’m aware of anyways) that for some reason have decided to subscribe to this blog. One of those people is reknowned tech blogger Louis Gray (FriendFeed | Twitter).

Today Nerdflood made Louis’ list of “five obscure blogs that sparkle“. A couple of comments on this.

1) I’m obviously deeply honored by this. Louis is well-respected in the tech/social media blogging circles. His philosophy reminds me of my own ideals back when I was a webcomics blogger on the Evil Network: highlight the cool stuff; don’t tear anyone down.

2) I’m among great company. I’m not going to start listing them all because I’m going to miss someone whose blog I really enjoy and I’ll kick myself about it. But check out Franklin Pettit’s blog post about getting “Louis Grayed” along with me, and you’ll get a great sampling of the excellent Z-lister content out there.

3) Not only is Nerdflood “obscure”, it also “sparkles”. The same can be said about me (after I’ve had a chance to shower and down my first Mountain Dew of the morning, of course).

4) This is second time in just the past two months that Louis has highlighted a central Iowa blogger. Last month he shined a well-deserved light on LiveCrunch, a blog that comes out of Des Moines. Surely we are poised to take over the world.

I’ll try my hardest not to disappoint, though you may find yourself ignoring 4 out of every 5 blog posts I do. You might also noticed that I rather drastically altered my web surfing habits recently, so the focus of my content is likely to change. But I tell you this, regardless of what I talk about here, I will try my hardest to entertain and inform.

So, who wants to see a picture of my wife’s broken toe? Nah, I’ll save that for a later post.

Two excellent CGI movies have come out this summer, both from completely different computer animation studios.

Kung Fu Panda. From Dreamworks Animation, the studio that brought us Shrek (all three of them), Shark Tale, Madagascar, Over the Hedge, and the Bee Movie. Mostly “meh” movies, some good, some not. Kung Fu Panda featured the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, and Jackie Chan.

Wall-E. From Pixar, the studio that brought us everything great about computer animation: Toy Story (both of the them), Monsters, Inc., the Incredibles, Cars, and Ratatouille. Mostly fantastic movies, pretty much each and every one. Wall-E featured the voices of essentially nobodies, with the exception of Sigourney Weaver and John Ratzenberger. There was very little speaking involved, so this isn’t surprising to see.

This however, might be surprising: between the two movies, I preferred Kung Fu Panda.

To me, it was the more entertaining of the two. It had characters that I (and my kids) could better relate to. It had a story that was more compelling. It had much, much more action and intensity. And, as far as I’m concerned, more humor.

Now, that doesn’t mean that Wall-E was horrible - not by any stretch of the imagination. It was a wonderful, warm, captivating film. The two movies are very close in quality in my mind. On a scale of 1 to 10, Wall-E would rate a 7 while Kung Fu Panda would garner an 8.

I think in a lot of people’s minds, any Pixar film automatically gains additional awesome points just by virtue of being a Pixar film. Because of Dreamworks’ lackluster history, films from that studio might lose awesome points by the same criteria. But as far as I’m concerned, even additional Pixar awesome points doesn’t bring Wall-E up to Kung Fu Panda’s level.

Am I alone in thinking this? Is it impossible to compare the two movies because their style and presentation are so drastically different? Should every Pixar movie simply win by default?

The cost of developing titles for the PS3 is extraordinary, and no developer in Japan worth their salt will bother to even acknowledge the 360. Where does that leave the jRPG developer? With the appearance of games like Arc Rise Fantasia and confirmation that Swords of Legendia is an actual game; combined with all the Wii RPG games I talked about previously, signs are definitely pointing to jRPG development gradually shifting from the PS2 over to the Wii.

More and more, I’m starting to watch the developers and publishers to see where their support is moving. Marvelous Entertainment is one company that appears to be heavily favoring the Wii and the DS. There is a Rune Factory game in development for the Wii that looks interesting, in addition to the previously-mentioned Arc Rise Fantasia. They’re also responsible for publishing Vanillaware’s Oboro Muramasa Yōtōden, Cing’s Little King’s Story, and, one of my favorites, No More Heroes (admittedly, none of which are jRPGs). I’m also keeping a close eye on Namco Bandai, the developer/publisher of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Swords of Legendia, and Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. Namco created a significant slew of titles for the PS2, including the entire Tales series and the excellent Xenosaga games. What else could they possibly have slated?

And, of course, you can’t discuss jRPGs without mentioning Square Enix. Rumors are casting doubt on whether or not our highly-anticipated Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: the Crystal Bearers will ever see the light of day. Beyond that, all the Wii has seen from them is an abysmal Dragon Quest game, Chocobo’s Dungeon, and the WiiWare My Life as a King. Hardly any reason to get excited. Plus, if any Japanese developer has the capital to get projects moving on the PS3, it’s Square Enix. And with their continued support of the 360 through Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4, they seem committed to bringing quality jRPGs to everyone BUT Wii owners. Could Kingdom Hearts move to the Wii? It would seem to have the right audience for such a series, though the DS appears to be getting a lot of Square Enix attention these days, so I have to lean towards “no”. The future appears bleak on that front, but maybe that reprieve will allow other, less notable developers to garner some much-needed attention.

Overall, I would say there’s definitely potential for the Wii to become much more than it is now as far as jRPGs are concerned. I’ll be watching this year’s E3 with anticipation, hoping to see more news squeak out that may hint at things to come.

Well, not “competition” in the strictest sense, since I’m actually eager to see her in this particular space, but it appears as though my wife has decided to take up blogging. Now, I won’t be linking to her blog around these parts, as it’s a more personal site for just close friends and family. I talk about family here every now and then, but she plans on telling a lot more of the stories about our lives and our kids. So she’s being protective and not using names or associating with my own blog (where I DO tend to use names), and I can certainly respect that since, you know, it’s my family.

My wife has never been a luddite, nor has she been the bravest of technophiles. But I’m very proud of the steps she’s taken recently to embrace web 2.0 style systems. I got her hooked on Gmail first, then Google Reader, and now she’s blogging. Next thing I know, I’ll be seeing her share things on FriendFeed and she’ll be calling me to dinner via Twitter.

Yeah, probably not.

So last night, like every Tuesday night, my oldest son and I (and the youngest one, when he was capable of sitting still for more than ten seconds) sat down to watch Nova. This time the episode was Secrets of the Samurai Sword. You can tell that an episode is particularly good when the boy begins drawing pictures of what he saw immediately following the close of the program.

From last night, we get two samurai sword images that evidently captured his attention the most.

In the first image, you see the part of the episode which talked about this father and daughter team in Japan. The father is a samurai sword master, and his daughter hopes to be a master herself one day. To test their own skill and demonstrate the awesome power of a samurai sword, they perform this death-defying act. The father wields the sword while the daughter shoots the father with an arrow. The father then (hopefully!) slices the arrow in half in mid-air. My boys are apparently quite taken with risky acts of otherworldly stupidity. I don’t know how I feel about that.

The second image is a representation of the “damage” a samurai sword can do to an object. One of the weapons experts presented in the episode actually used the phrase “the sword is designed to do maximum damage”, which resonated powerfully with my son’s video game and Pokemon-addled brain. He opted to represent this “damage” as an actual number, which is something like 9,099, which, as far as samurai swords go, is probably pretty high.

Man, do I love having kids.

Being offline for an entire week has really put a lot of things into perspective. Coming back to a veritable information overload online with over 1,500 unread Google Reader items, I’ve decided that a lot of the noise I listen to runs completely counter to my goals in life. So I’ve decided to make a few drastic changes to my habits.

• I pared down my Google Reader subscriptions from 237 feeds to just 63. That might still sound like a lot, but the ones I’ve kept align well with my interests. Instead of multitudes of technology and gaming blogs, I’m keeping just a small handful of interesting gaming sites, alongside all of the writing, art, and politics blogs I followed previously.
• Twitter and FriendFeed have been removed from my default Firefox home tabs, and from my bookmarks. This one was tough. But I’ve mentioned several times in the past that Twitter is an enormous timesink, and FriendFeed wasn’t getting any better. FriendFeed works well as a lifestreaming service, but being involved in the community wasn’t doing me any favors. The Twitter community is one I would miss; there’s a lot of great local people there that I have been really connecting with recently. Ultimately, however, they simply aren’t necessary.
• Numerous bookmarks deleted. There’s quite a few social sites that I’ve had bookmarked that I never truly intend to visit again. Now, I don’t have to even think about it.
• Art is taking a backseat to writing. I still love art and drawing; and to a lesser extent, photography (I think I really only like my wife’s photography), but I have to shelve the idea that continues to sit in the back of my mind that I could potentially be some sort of artist and/or cartoonist. That isn’t the life I want. I predominantly love the written word, and that needs to be my focus more than anything else. This includes both fiction and blogging, my two most accessible creative outlets.

Since drafting my declaration of creativity back in April, I haven’t actually demanded all that much creativity out of myself. I don’t know how many declarations or demands I’ll have to make of myself before I actually begin to live that life, but hopefully not too many. Otherwise, I’ll just be making a mockery of my own desires, and I don’t think any of us really wants that.

So, what happens when I’m out of the office for an entire week?

Oh, nothing much.

I’m going to be offline all this coming week, from Sunday through about Friday. I’ll be spending some time out at a church camp all week with some high schoolers being a counselor and a speaker, and occasionally playing guitar around a campfire. Naturally, we’ll all be praying for the flood waters to quickly recede with as little fuss as possible.

Take care!