Hard To Pronounce

5.3 Audio version

2012-01-15T14:34:00.001-04:00

So I accidentally skipped over 5.2. I'll do that later though, in the meantime we've got this one I've been saving...for some reason. I kinda forget why now.
http://minus.com/mVKAMJ77X#1

Yay.

6.2 and Blip

2011-11-04T01:33:00.000-03:00

So If you didn't watch that update video I put on Youtube, I have a Blip account now.I'm using it mainly as a backup/home for the anime commentary stuff.
Anything I make will be up and if I can manage to get it on Youtube it'll be there as well.

This post is also a bit of a test for how well Blip works, so far pretty good. Though their uploading process leaves much to be desired.

6.2 Audio Version

2011-11-02T19:23:00.000-03:00

So apparently they're catching on or I was unlucky this time. A few hours after uploading, 6.2 was blocked. Well they can't block this can they?
http://minus.com/m6BxEE7Z#1

I might try again with a video because that had some unforeseen tech problems, but don't be surprised if it gets blocked again.

Happy Halloween...Also 14

2011-11-01T01:55:00.001-03:00

A bit late for a Halloween release, but fuck it. Its still Halloween somewhere, so it counts okay?

Most of what has delayed this has been a combination of real life issues and editing difficulties. This will actually be the last time the series will have F.E.A.R. footage this low in graphical quality I'm happy to say. So once again, look forward to it.

I Know, I Know

2011-09-14T18:37:00.002-03:00

This is much longer than I originally intended after 13 was released. But a lot has happened, mostly personal stuff. So this time I won't be explaining it. But it has been pretty damn serious.

14 is not dead I assure you, its the last bits and pieces that are preventing a finished product. The whole anime thing is fine, whatever, that was never really in question anyway.

I have recently gotten back into Minecraft sorta, a bit before the new update was released today actually. So I had to get used to things again. A lot of other games I've played recently, and that I really can't recommend enough are: Bastion, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Warhammer 40k: Spacemarine, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and to a lesser extent Dead Island. Mostly because its a bit too niche to be liked by everyone.

The big releases coming up aren't looking nearly as fun though. With the exception of Mass Effect 3 Battlefield 3 and Diablo 3 (which I am totally using this build when I get it). We're getting every game I really really don't care about in the slightest. Gears of War, Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Rage. Resistance 3 came out not too long ago, I can't think of anyone I know who actually gives a shit.
Just a bit of a rant I guess.

I'll have something entertaining up soon, I promise.

5.1 the Audio Version

2011-08-13T03:11:00.000-03:00

I think I've got a formula down to ensure commentary syncs with the episodes. But hey, I'll probably improve at some point. Intro and disclaimer is a bit awkward, sure felt that way at least.

Here it is.

I still feel awkward about just leaving it up by itself. Doesn't feel right without packaging the video too, but that would just make it more..."lawyer-ey" is a good way of putting it. So you'll all have to find the episodes on your own, not exactly hard these days.

Future anime crap

2011-07-28T22:43:00.001-03:00

Its been brought to my attention that Funimation recently blocked Hour and a Half Later 1.4 for viewing in the United States. Being in Canada I had no idea or noticed a difference myself, so I appreciate the heads up.

This brings me to what I'm probably going to do from now on. I'll still have the episodes made with the cuts and everything for youtube consumption. But at the same time I will also have the MP3 file available for download off...I dunno. Megaupload maybe.
This way people can still get the full un-edited commentary a few people have asked for. While at the same time there will be a ready made backup, just in case this happens again.

Of course this also means that anyone relying on this will have to manually sync the commentary to the episodes I (and possibly others) watch. And like the series' name implies I usually watch 3 episodes at a time. There'll be some sort of timer, i'll figure something out when I get to it. As for the video of the episodes themselves? Hey, if a guy like me can find Anime this easily it should be a snap for you guys.

I'll post any download links on the blog here.

(I should mention that I did not save the raw audio files until now. The only thing I saved was the video which won't do you any good if it gets blocked again.)

10,000!?

2011-07-25T18:14:00.000-03:00

This number might be a bit off what with youtube's view count being on the fritz this month. But my first episode has actually reached 10,000 views now. Amazing, though it has been a year so that probably has a lot to do with it, as always baby steps.

Still though thats a pretty awesome number to think about.

Episode 14 is still waiting on Robin to get well enough to do it. So you'll all have to be patient once again. Watching this anime stuff works well as filler, but like you guys I'd rather get back to the main attraction soon.

14 and Future Goodies

2011-06-22T13:07:00.000-03:00

Yeah I've uploaded more of this anime stuff instead of episode 14. There's only one part of the process to complete now, the dialogue.

Couple things preventing me from doing that right this minute however. The first is that I'm building a BRAND NEW COMPUTER! Thats right, a brand new computer with much better graphical and processing power. Meaning that chapters from now on will be of much higher graphical quality. Editing time and power consumption should be drastically reduced from this as well. And best of all I can now play FEAR3 if I decide to continue on the monolith timeline. But this also means a have a bunch of computer parts and boxes where I would record dialogue normally.
Luckily though this will all be done this week so I can finally get to it.

The other thing from releasing however is Robin/Krimsin. He recently had the flu and is recovering from it now, and like my own run in with the flu it tore into his vocal chords. Won't be hearing from him for a bit and understandably so.

That is all right now, just remember that this anime thing is to fill time when I can't finish episodes. I'm not giving up on it.

Nintendo the U and the Duke

2011-06-13T14:43:00.001-03:00

I really wanted to like Nintendo again, I really did. When I saw the Wii all those years ago I knew for a fact that it would get stale and there wouldn't be any games I would want for it. And that is exactly what happened. 5 or so years later and here we are with the WiiU (or the U which is what it should have been called). An iPad with buttons on it.
Innovation my ass, for anyone impressed by that golf swing part of their trailer I have one thing to say. FUCK YOU. There has been literally been zero reason to think this won't be another retarded gimmick like the Wii. Supporting dumb-fuckery like this is what has made me shift to PC gaming so much.

That being said, I hope I'm wrong. I hope the U actually comes out with a game that looks cool and halfway interesting. I hope Nintendo gives me a reason to come back to them, I miss what Nintendo used to be and I want to see them get better. So far it doesn't look like it.

Now for something completely different. Duke Nukem Forever sucks.
The game was released in Europe and will be released tomorrow in North America. But the word is that the game sucks, a lot. Everything aside from Duke's personality was given quality time apparently. So for all you retards out there who chuckle at this crap will love it.
Which of course brings me to the fact that the game has been pre-ordered by so many people that they've already turned a massive profit. Thank you so fucking much.

I guess the point of this post was to rant about how stupid gamers are these days. Willing to throw their money at people who don't deserve it and willing to support franchises that should have died in the 90s.
And I didn't even mention Sonic or Call of Duty.

Goodnight.

Episode 14 and that Anime Thing

2011-06-01T00:51:00.000-03:00

14 is near the half way point already. Got the script and most of the footage done. This one has 3 firefights in total so not a lot of downtime and getting a good fight scene can be pretty tough game play wise.
For any of you who've played FEAR before, the main thing the enemy AI does well is being unpredictable. Meaning that if you aren't paying attention and seriously outnumbered (which you always are) you'll have a grenade or shotgun up your ass. Something which has happened during recording I can assure you.

That might need one more round for me to make it fun to watch and of course believable. So sit tight.

The Hour and a Half Later thing is still going and I've got a bit of a surprise for the next series I watch. More of an experiment actually.
You'll see what I mean soon, suffice to say that if you read this I would appreciate feedback as much as possible once I release the first 2 episodes.

History is Cool

2011-05-24T21:16:00.001-03:00

I figured I'd take the time to give some deserved attention to a couple of history/video game nerds who are actually making the history of the video game industry fun again.

The Nostalgic Gamer is a guy I should have subscribed to much earlier. He makes video game retrospectives, most notably his Street Fighter retrospective which is so epic that I was almost sad it ended. Currently he has moved on to an even more ambitious project, the retrospective of an entire company, Rare. This guy doesn't have the greatest speaking voice, but his info is solid and editing superb.

Gametrailers has a couple series that immortalize gaming history much in the same way. Their retrospectives are of much higher visual quality which is to expected but are also incredibly in depth and fascinating to watch or listen to. These guys are the ones who inspired the Nostalgic Gamer to do his thing so giving them a watch is a good idea.
Another series they've recently done which I was surprised by is called Level. The premise being that the staff at the site pick one specific location or level of any video game and immortalize it for its: originality, twist in gameplay, design, and how memorable it is.

I suggest checking out any of those three series if you're interested at all in gaming history or may be too young to remember gaming's roots.

Roundhouse Kick to the Face.

2011-05-14T15:33:00.001-03:00

TO THE FACE!

400 Already?

2011-05-12T13:44:00.000-03:00

Damn guys, didn't expect that so quickly.

Didn't have anything planned to celebrate this time. I'll try to think of something I guess, but by then it probably wouldn't mean anything.

I guess I should thank Jared aka:Cool or CptCool2 on youtube. He favorited episode 13 and right after that I got like 10 subscribers while I was sleeping. Crazy stuff.

Episode 13! Damn Straight!

2011-05-06T03:03:00.000-03:00

Yeah it's finally here. Despite what seemed like the universe's attempt to stop this series dead, I'm still going!
Take that!

This episode reminds me again of how weird it is for a guy who has zero interest in acting. Is doing a video series requiring him to do it anyway.
Starting this out I knew voice over would be my main weakness. So to make up for it I've tried to put more emphasis on the writing and visual presentation. So far its worked out pretty damn well.
For one, barely anyone has pointed out how absolute shit I am. Which is a win in my book!

Believe me when I say that I'll be writing episode 14 this weekend. Already kinda got a start on that one. But I'll admit I've been putting it off. Should be a bit more straight forward, no detours, lots of carnage.

The Point Man's Mind and FEAR 3 (among other things)

2011-05-03T20:18:00.000-03:00

So for those not aware already, FEAR 3 will be released this month. I haven't decided if I'll continue the series into that game, but I do know I'm going to try and make sure its a possibility at least.
For one the new game has actual cutscenes this time. Pointman may not have talked much so far but its still possible that he won't stay mute by the end of it. There's also of course that whole co-op aspect that might ruin any kind of monologue thinking going on.

It'll be a challenge either way, but I obviously won't know for sure until I play the game. Which I will.

On a more personal note I've got a bit of a turning point going on here. This summer I'm going to have to get a job of some sort. But after thats over I'm not sure if I'll be continuing college or not. I'm currently in the Information Technology program, and after all of that time. I'm not sure if I want to continue it.
Doing these videos is actually a lot more fun. The screen capture and the commentary and the editing. I'd really rather do these for a living. But of course reality gets in the way of things.
I only mention this because this may cause some more delays in updating. Not for episode 13 of the Pointman but anything else for the next few months.

I might have something this month though, still working the kinks out for that.

Don't Trust Robots. Just FYI

2011-04-21T19:34:00.000-03:00

So I got Portal 2, and it didn't work for the last two days. But its patched now!

Haven't beaten it yet, I'm in the midst of moving back home from school. In fact I'll probably be on the road by the time anyone reads this or already there.
So I guess if you are reading this, I'M BACK HOME!

I've gotten to the second last bit of High School of the Dead for anyone looking forward to that. I'll be starting up that teacher thing soon after it is uploaded. Still waiting on Krimsin's last bit before I can release 13. He's a bit busy with...things. So I don't want to see anyone bugging him about this. Maybe bug him about doing his own episode faster but no more than the usual amount of bugging!

Nothing more interesting than that right now.

No More!

2011-04-16T21:50:00.000-03:00

No more of that stupid crappy vampire thing or posts about school.

Last of the 1.0 series will go up shortly and you guys won't have to get confused by those blogs about my textbook chapters anymore. Its over.

This leaves the last bit of High School of the Dead, followed by the 3.0 series for some show called Onegai Teacher. Sounds like a comedy or some kinda porno for those with teacher fetishes. I don't, so I'm not sure what I'm going to think of it.
Someone also mentioned I should watch that Evangelion thing too. I am aware of that show but never watched it personally. I'm pretty sure the guy who suggested it wanted me to watch it because it is good. I'll be honest right now, and I know I'm pre-judging things, I probably won't like it.
It seems like the kind of moronic "I have a thesaurus and use the words 'self' and 'truth' a lot" bullshit I found in the Matrix sequels. I could be wrong granted, but I'm not getting that impression.
I'll still watch it but don't expect me to love it.

The point man's mind still has that last bit to add in before I can release it. So this anime stuff will have to tide you over until then. Again, sorry.

Project Management Class: Procurement

2011-04-15T13:58:00.000-03:00

Procurement didn't really seem like the right word for this chapter. The majority of our discussion was about outsourcing work or purchasing from outside sources. Outsourcing sounds a bit more accurate in my opinion.

I actually worked in a call center for about a year before college, so I know about outsourcing pretty well. My job in fact was outsourced from Ontario as most call centers are.
The call center I worked for was hired by Rogers Cable. Why a call center in Nova Scotia I wasn't exactly sure, but the reason we were fed by management was because of our "quality service". I never bought it, it was a few months later that I found out how cheap our center was compared to others. Another factor I think was how relaxed the coastal provinces are compared to Ontario. Listening to all those customers over and over again I came to realize that for some reason people who live in Ontario are really wound tight. I noticed this whenever I spoke to customers who moved there from the maritimes. In fact a number of customers mentioned this fact themselves.
Maybe it wasn't a conscious decision, but seemed to help customers relax a bit themselves.

There were a couple times where that wasn't the case, but that isn't worth getting into.

Of course with outsourcing comes that whole political stink. Support local vendors and such, as if it was was your patriotic duty or something. I personally never cared for that, being as anti - patriotic as I am. What I get worried about is the balance of power that comes from outsourcing work. It was mentioned in class that India is ahead of the curve by taking the jobs North Americans don't want. Which makes sense, but it also means India and even China are going to be bigger driving forces in world economics than the western world. Which may cause trouble down the road, though that is assuming any trouble occurs at all.

Point is, I found it surprisingly interesting this time. A pity it was the last one we are going to discuss, things only just started to get really good.

Project Management Class: Risk Management

2011-04-15T13:35:00.000-03:00

Risk management was one of the few chapters that surprised me.

At first I thought it was all about managing problems that occur during projects. But in actual fact it was about lowering the number of problems by estimating possible threats.
I never really did that before, or at least not consciously anyway. I guess the closest would be the type of bank savings account I chose. Mine has a bit more risk of losing more money than others, but the the chance of making more money than I could lose is also pretty high. Weighing the two I chose the account I have now. Though it wasn't really a decision I thought hard about.

I'm just not into banking and stocks. My dad adores that subject but I don't see why. It was actually his suggestion that I try a riskier account, but I didn't feel like I should. It just never really interested me.

Project Management Class: Communications

2011-04-14T10:21:00.000-03:00

This was again, one of the more straight forward chapters.

The main thing it talked about concerning communication was that generally IT students and workers don't have many communication skills. Basically sticking to the stereotype that computer geeks are shy or just can't handle social situations. Which I guess in a way might fit me well. But it was still a little annoying that a textbook was promoting a cliche like that.

I've actually been more social this year than I ever have before. Granted its been mainly with the same group of people but normally I wouldn't even have people to talk to in the first place. That was definitely the case in public school.
Never been called a social outcast by a textbook before though. That one was new.

Project Management Class: Human Resource Management

2011-04-12T23:49:00.000-03:00

I was again aware of most of human resources due to my entrepreneurship course in high school.
Weirdly enough I learned about the hierarchy of needs first from a youtube video about using the bathroom.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw)

The principal remains the same no matter what situation though. Physical needs such as food and hygiene will always need to be fulfilled before anything else can even be thought about properly. Missing breakfast or a shower because of waking up too late in the morning is the perfect way to experience this principle.
Motivating workers to, well, work follows the same rules. In fact I preferred this lecture to all others so far because of a video we saw that day.

I don't remember or have the link myself but the video was about the motivations for workers.
In the last few years, especially since the american tea-party group got so popular, I've had to deal with Libertarians a lot.
For those who have the luxury of not knowing. A libertarian is a political ideology that promotes, to an almost fanatical degree, the rights of individuals over everything else. Something that sounds good on paper, but this translates into a doctrine of extremely liberal cultural ideas combined with extremely conservative economic ones. To break it down simply: Capitalism is perfect in every way and the government hates all freedom.
That is an extreme straw man example I know, but it generally comes off this way.
The point of bringing up the topic of Libertarianism is that the video we watched talked about a study that completely debunks their train of thought economically. Basically saying that paying people more money for more complicated and knowledge intensive jobs is not enough to motivate a worker to work harder. Something else needs to reward them and drive them onwards.

Just on a personal level I liked the fact that an entire political group had just been shown as the delusional jerks I knew they were. On the other hand I was entirely surprised by this. I assumed money would be more than enough reason to work for any job. But as I thought about it, most jobs I've worked for have been mainly grunt work. Which the video actually said monetary reward worked perfectly for.
I also worked for a few call centers as well. And looking back at it now I find that I generally liked going back to that job day in and day out because of the colleagues that I worked with. Meaning I liked the job because of the social opportunities instead of the monetary value of working.

I just found that interesting to think about.

Project Management Class: Quality

2011-04-12T22:56:00.000-03:00

Quality management was a bit of a weird one for me.
The only real way I could relate it to anything was to how I write. Which has been noted to me several times but I never really took it to heart.

I've been told I'm really hyper critical of myself sometimes, which causes me to almost constantly edit and correct everything I do. The same goes for when I write stories or essays. I've read and heard that a lot of writers and reporters including my own dad tend to just write out what they think is correct at the time and later edit and revise. I can't do that.
For me, if I don't think something works at a given time I always go back and correct it. In fact there has been a story idea that has been in my head since the end of Jr High, but I've edited and restarted it so many times I've barely gotten past one chapter. Not to say its completely a bad thing. The reason I've edited and restarted that story has been because it really wasn't any good that way. In fact this iteration (I think the 8th one) feels and reads much better than the previous attempts.

I guess one could interpret this as planning quality, assuring the consistency and quality of a product as it is developed. The only problem is that I've never really submitted anything for review or to be edited by anyone beyond school work. So it works as an example only slightly.

Project Management Class: Cost

2011-04-12T22:35:00.000-03:00

Unlike the time management section, cost is definitely something I can relate to better.

I've taken classes in high school where the profit and measuring cost were high priority. Granted they were more geared towards business than an IT project, but the info is the same here as it was there.
Estimating cost and potential profits over the course of a business venture was something I did experience however. The principals are the same. The cost of production, the resources needed, what and who our market base was. What it came down to was that we needed to find out what the resources we needed were and how much it would cost to purchase and use them.
This was again in high school, during an entrepreneurship course. So we were only allowed to create a business on school grounds and sell only to students and staff. Naturally of course this took place during lunch hour so it became obvious to us that having some sort of food would be a good idea. We played around with a few ideas but after we saw that we had to fund the entire thing ourselves any and all of our grand ideas were thrown out.
Eventually we settled on making pretzels as we knew how to make them and the ingredients were relatively inexpensive. Once we settled on that we tried calculating how expensive each pretzel would be and what our expected gains would be. That took a while and its been so long that I forget the exact amount we came to. But using that info we estimated what our profit would be, and after we went and looked at it from a more realistic perspective we found that we could break even.

That second estimation turned out to be correct. We did break even, which was a lot better than a few other groups that were with us. Though a few actually made around $50 in profit, which we thought was really impressive.

All in all the cost management and estimation for a project was pretty similar to how it worked the last time.

Project Management Class: Time

2011-04-12T21:48:00.000-03:00

Managing time was pretty straight forward.
Basically it came down to the fact that projects need deadlines and to meet those deadlines the time worked on the project needs to be managed.

Like I said, straight forward.

I personally have a hard time managing time for projects or pretty much anything really. I guess you could say the stress of something being last minute is what makes me work harder. But I'd like to hope this isn't the only way I could do things.
This chapter mentioned a few things such as milestones. I've been aware of what they are but never exactly applied them in my own life. This might be due to my lack of knowing what the end goal really is at a given time. It makes it hard to really determine milestones when you don't know the end goal yet. I guess the perfect example is what I want to do as a career for the rest of my life. When I left high school everyone I knew in my grade already knew what they were going to aspire to. A couple guys wanted to be doctors, entrepreneurs, a girl I had a crush on wanted to be a librarian of all things. Point is they knew what initial goal they had when they left, even if they found something else along the way.
I never had that. In fact I still don't think I do. Having a goal like that probably would have made me a bit more confident, or maybe its a lack of confidence that prevented me from figuring out some sort of career path. Either way, whatever milestones I may have achieved right now seem more like random daily accomplishments than working towards a final product.

Time management for me, though straightforward, has always eluded me in some way.
It was a little depressing as a result

I am Surprised, This is my Surprised Face 0_0

2011-03-27T21:37:00.002-03:00

So I guess subscribers already know this. But yesterday I tried watching some anime called Hellsing for the first time. I heard mixed opinions so I felt that if it sucked I could at least get some minor laughs from it by recording my reactions.
So I did, and bam! One hour and a half later I have a video on youtube mainly for my own reasons. And not even 20 minutes after I find out that people actually liked it. Well...great...I guess.
So because I'm really bad at dealing with peer pressure I now have to continue this on the side. Really, did not expect that one. If I can manage to make funny comments I guess I'll do a new episode for whatever people want me to watch. It should be something that can actually be made fun of though.

(Also, the 1.1 thing means the next will be 1.2 since the series isn't over yet. Just in case anyone was wondering about that)

Oh Yeah...

2011-03-23T15:14:00.000-03:00

So quite a bit has happened since I last updated here.

I'm completely over my fever, completely fine now. The antibiotics worked for my sinus and chest infection but I also developed an ear infection which didn't go away after I ran out of drugs. Sleep took care of that luckily.

I got back into developing that little 2D thing I mentioned before. Its coming along pretty well but there are a few obstacles in the way. This is still ages away however, probably half way through the game which is waaay further than I am right now. Which means I still have plenty of time to perfect this.
This project I'm talking about is one of these 1/2 episode things. I'm thinking something along the lines of leaving the question of it being canon up to the viewer. Whether or not anyone feels like asking that question after seeing it is a whole nother thing all together.

As for the real show.
Episode 13 is almost done. I've got the footage and the audio and most of the editing done, just waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. This episode marks the beginning of A. Shephard being a recurring character outside of the game's forced radio chatter. I'm hoping to get a sort of discussion going to work out what he and the point man will talk about and what the relationship will be later in the game. Until then however 13 will have to wait a bit longer.
13 seems to be unlucky after all. Sorry about that.

Some other random things going on.

I got Minecraft.
I know I know, jumping on the bandwagon and all that. Only $20 bucks or so though, figured why the hell not. I'm more interested in building with other people though, the game seems to be much more fun that way. Obviously the multiplayer is very limiting right now. So singleplayer is where I'll have to stay.

Homefront was released.
Its exactly what I expected. White hats vs Black hats mentality. Typical NRA political bullshit, only thing that makes it worse is how bland the gameplay looks. I did not expect that part.

I got a really weird and girly JRPG!
I might make a video about my reactions to it one day soon. Beleive me, its weird...and girly....girly weird...and its from Japan soo....its really weird by North American standards.

Thats all for right now. I'll post the video once its finished off and I'll update you guys later.

Project Management Class: Scope

2011-02-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

Just so any regular readers are aware, these certain posts will be concerning a course I'm taking. Its required that I create a blog about each section we learn about. Which is why I'm showing this here.

So again, for anyone who checks for updates on videos, this will be completely unrelated.

Now for the actual post.

This week we finally got to a section that didn't completely feel like we had covered it before. How to design and plan out the scope of a project.
The main thing I got out of it was that involved finding out the purpose and constraints of a project. Which of course means more planning is required. Not that huge of a step from the whole initial planning section. To be perfectly honest its almost exactly the same. Though at least this time we're talking in a more practical sense than before, or at least that is how I feel about it.

Its pretty self explanatory, which is most likely part of the reason it was mashed together with another chapter. That and we've missed the last 2 or 3 classes due to weather, not much of a choice there. In any case, figuring out the scope of a project mainly consisted of finding out what it requires and what the goals are. There are a few other obvious things such as the deadline and the budget allowed, all of which combines into what everyone can see as the "scope" of the project. As I said, pretty self explanatory.
Putting all of those pieces together was a bit more complicated however. It involves a "Work Breakdown Structure" or chart of some kind to organize everything. There are four versions of of a Work Breakdown Structure: Top-Down where the larger items are broken down, Bottom-Up where you start from the smaller pieces and organize them into larger ones, Mind Mapping which uses a chart where every item branches from a topic or idea, and Analogy which really just references other Work Breakdown Structures and gets inspired from there. All of these have advantages in certain situations and some find it easier to try one approach over others. From here, organizing and determining the scope of a project is simplified and easier to comprehend.

This was the most important piece of info I learned when it came to this section of the class so far. Organizing and planning out what a project is seemed to be more practical than everything before. But then again I mentioned "so far", there's a very good chance this will be overshadowed by something else a lot more important. Or at least interesting.

Getting Down with the Sickness

2011-02-06T02:05:00.000-04:00

So yeah, my little cold turned into a big sinus infection which turned into a lung infection with all the mucus draining from my nose down my throat.
Needless to say, it was gross. Ended up face down retching into a toilet bowl more often than I would have liked. Spent the rest of the time blowing my nose dry and drinking water, which I then threw up. It wasn't fun, felt like I puked out my lungs a couple times. The blizzard that just flew by didn't help my body either.

Saw the doctor this week, got some antibiotics, should be fully up and running in a week from today. My voice is back mostly though, so I might be able to get the dialogue junk done before then. There are still a couple more things to work out but it looks optimistic.

I don't know how I got this damn thing, but I seem to have it on the ropes now. Only a matter of time.

Some 'splaining

2011-01-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

Alright alright, I know I haven't updated and explained my absence in a while. Sorry guys.

You might be happy to know that I've gotten 2/3 of episode 13 done and all that is left is the VO junk. Which leads me into my problem, I got sick.

I don't think its the flu or anything serious, but I haven't taken my flu shot this season. And I'm living in a building where a lot of people don't understand what basic sanitation is. (IE: washing your hands after you shit). So I'm a little concerned but not badly.
The gist of it is that my throat is shot. It hurts to swallow anything including water and I can't even cough without it stinging like hell. I've got some medicine that seems to be making it more bearable but I'm not over this thing yet.

So unfortunately that means no episode 13 until I get better. I have taken this extra time to move a little ahead with further episodes to make up for it, but keep in mind I also have school sick or not. Probably not this month, sorry.

New Year, New Subscribers

2011-01-08T21:01:00.001-04:00

I'm always amazed by this, 300? Wow.

I considered doing the sparta remix thing cuz you know, Spartans...300. lulz? But thats a little played out. So I did something that was fun to make and still kinda entertaining to watch.

I mentioned this in the description bar but the song was made by these guys http://theamazingbrando.com/fr_duaneandbrando
Check them out if you get the chance.

So YouTube is Being Weird

2010-12-17T19:03:00.000-04:00

I have no idea why this appeared all of the sudden but I'm a little weirded out by it.

So its saying I can upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes now. Thats nice and all and apparently its being applied only to certain users who've complied with YouTube guidelines.

I'm assuming that they generally mean with "complying with guidelines" they're actually talking about copyright infringement. I'm not sure if they're actually looking at who they're applying this to, but I know I'm not following copyright laws 100% here.

I'm basically using a copyrighted video game to amplify my own work, if I was under legal investigation I would be a prosecutor's wet dream right now. And I'm not the only one either.

Legality aside. Does this mean I'll be making videos longer than 15 minutes now?

No....well sorta.

For the Point Man's Mind, no there won't be videos that exceed 15 minutes unless things call for it. Internet videos tend to only work in short bursts like that and I generally feel like my writing abilities work in that same fashion.

Maybe if there isn't an appropriate cut off point for few more minutes of gameplay. Maybe then, but I wouldn't expect it.

The times where it probably will are going to be for Let's Plays. I haven't continued one of those in a bit but not having to look at the clock will make things easier. And with this new found time on my hands I might be able to bring one out soon.

So I figured I'd bring this to everyone's attention. I still find it weird and a little confusing that they're figuring me for a copyright abiding citizen, but whatever.

Yeah it's Here

2010-12-13T15:22:00.000-04:00

You waited, you got it. Episode 12. And this will be the last episode for 2010, or at least the last one that'll be released this year. By next year I'll probably have all the work I spent during the holidays finished so I can get it out in January.

Until then.

12 Is Done!....Sorta Kinda

2010-12-08T09:23:00.001-04:00

Alright, I got almost everything done now. The main footage is in now, the script is done and I went through the dialogue recording not too long ago. "Then why don't we have episode 12 yet?" you ask.

Well finals mainly. I've got 3 projects to finish off, one of which I haven't even started yet. That's where my time has been going lately. But I on top of that I need to correct a couple things.
There's a bit of recording I did that I'm not satisfied with yet, my crappy "acting" aside, comes down to timing this time. The other thing is a bit simpler, I need to re-record some footage.
Like I mentioned last post, A.Shephard will be coming back in this episode. However like last time I need to make sure I have the game sound going in the background and selectively delete the original voice. What this means is that I need to go through the same sequence of events once with no SFX and music and a second time with only voice turned on. This is what I did last time.

As a bit of behind the scenes of that episode however, I screwed up a bit. The actual video footage I used was the footage I used with no SFX on. And i used the audio of the no voice footage, interchanged between the two. If you listen carefully (and I tried to hide this a little) you may notice that the footsteps don't completely line up with the video.
Don't ask me why I kept going on when there was an obviously easier way. I don't know myself.

Lastly I'm still waiting on Krimsin's dialogue. Though he's a busy guy and with the holidays coming up I don't expect it right away. That's almost a given though.

So that's why you're not getting Episode 12 right yet. Excuses excuses I know, but hopefully some behind the scenes stuff like this will satisfy. Its actually a little fun telling you guys.
If anyone wants to know how other things were done in the series, just let me know.

Cheers.

Ep 12 Progress

2010-11-22T12:39:00.003-04:00

Since you guys have been so diligently waiting, I figured I should let you know how far along things have gotten.

The script's rough draft before I record the game footage is done now, the final draft will be tweaked and finalized when I start dialogue. So I'm 1/3 of the way through right now. Things should calm down after this Wednesday in terms of work so that should make things easier.
I also managed to squeeze in the Shephard character's little banter with the NPCs in the script, only just long enough for it. I'm hoping to get everything I need done before I start bugging Krimsin though. Getting all of that out of the way first should free up my time for other things.

Also if nobody noticed yet I'm doing a team Let's Play of Contra and Super C with forum members on www.spoonyexperiment.com and they've already gotten to part 5. I opened that series of videos with level 1and will do another video with level 4 in Super C. I already have a playlist up for those videos so check 'em out if you get the chance.

Kane's Mind by Chunkboi

2010-11-06T13:55:00.001-03:00

So when I checked my youtube to clear up my inbox today I noticed Cyhanide made an announcement about Kane's Mind. I was intrigued because I've been secretly been hoping one of the Doom3 engine games would be done right some day. That day has come check it out.

I feel kinda bad I didn't notice him earlier in the week. I usually check anyone who comments or subscribes to see if there's videos that are cool, but I didn't with Chunkboi. So to make up for it I've subscribed and I'm plugging his show here. Go check him out, it's a little rough right now but I have a feeling things will pick up soon.

War Comes to the Homefront....Again.

2010-11-04T12:32:00.000-03:00

I've been seeing this game pop up a lot lately on the sites I regularly visit. Desperately trying to get my attention for yet another "America got Invaded" scenario. I have no idea why this still works.
Okay, that's a lie. I do know why this works I just don't understand how such an idiotic ploy can work so consistently.

For those of you not aware, Homefront is a video game coming out next year. Set in an alternate future where North Korea has become a new military powerhouse and taking advantage of the energy and economic crisis in America, invaded the mainland following a nation wide EMP attack from an orbiting satellite.
Yeah, that's really the story.

*cough* World at War *cough* Freedom Fighters *cough cough*

Lets forget about how retarded the idea of North Korea even having a space program is and just focus on what this game really is. It's an NRA propaganda vehicle, that's it. This was written by the same guy who wrote Red Dawn, a movie that was pretty much one long masturbation session for the American flag. America is in the right, all Russians and Cubans are evil for the sake of evil, it's only America that's at war there hasn't been any political backlash, and "Wolverines!"


"I Found My Boomstick!"

Ugh...I hate that damn battle cry. It sounds like some idiot couldn't think of something as cliche as "FREEDOM!" and just picked some cool sounding animal in the dictionary.
So if can't already tell, I didn't like Red Dawn. It was stupid and only really entertaining if I skipped to the part where Ferris Bueller's sister got shot. This isn't about Red Dawn, but it might as well be.

What it boils down to is that the NRA and all these fear mongering "evil foreigners" obsessed twats are once again trying to pass on their own paranoia to the next generation. Even if that means demonizing a country that's less threatening than Canada. Its ridiculous.

Wait...I thought they had EMPs. Oh forget it.

Now I wouldn't have a problem with this if the game had fun mechanics and gameplay. Like World at War which changed RTS gameplay for the better I think.Or Freedom Fighters, the game that put Red Dawn to shame. But we aren't getting anything new gameplay wise either. It plays exactly the same as every cookie cutter military shooter out there and looks the same too.

So I bet you're asking. "If it's so generic and idiotic that you aren't going to buy it. Then why do you care?" That's a legitimate question. The reason I care is because I know for a fact that this game will sell. Homefront is one of those games that caters to the lowest common denominator, and those people will throw their money at anything directed at them. And there's a lot of them. A lot more people who'd buy a game or movie because of their Nationalist pride than the people who'd buy the next Portal game.

So in short. Homefront pisses me off and I felt like venting.
I'll try and update you guys on my video progress in a few weeks.

Episode 11

2010-10-31T00:32:00.000-03:00

After a few hiccups uploading and re-uploading. Episode 11 is here,in all its non Halloween themed glory.

For those that noticed, when I first uploaded the video it only showed the first 3 minutes or so. Somehow me re-formatting the file made it better, go figure. Been busy getting back home for the weekend and dealing with some lame ass haunted house deal earlier today. So didn't even notice until Krimsin commented, so thanks a ton man you saved my ass.

As for the rest of you. YOU SAW NOTHING!

Somebody also just mentioned my LP of Half-Life using the SMOD Tactical modification might have a chance of resurrection! I'll check this out but it sounds promising.

I Got a Better Idea

2010-10-25T20:38:00.001-03:00

Remember that Point Man sprite I made not to long ago? How I said it was a stupid idea mainly due to the fact I can't draw...good... to save my life?

Well I found a way around that problem by simplifying things. I won't spoil when this will happen as its still further in the game and this is a long process. But suffice to say The Point Man's adventures into drug abuse won't end when he reaches maximum.

Thought of this mystery idea after some VO recording trouble forced me to give up for the day. Even got bored and made Point Man a few pixel friends (it was for fun, I haven't talked to anyone about it.).

I'll leave the guessing up to you guys. Till then!

Halloween is Coming up.

2010-10-18T10:22:00.000-03:00

And I completely forgot about it.

Sorry guys, If you were looking forward to a Halloween themed special episode I kinda dropped the ball on this one. I actually haven't payed attention to Halloween in 5 years so I guess it was a force of habit.

On the bright side, I'm hoping to get episode 11 out by the end of the month just in time for the holiday. And this is one of the creepiest/scariest parts of the game too! So that kinda works out.

I still feel bad for letting anyone down though. So I've already begun work on a special episode that's a few more months down the road. Hopefully that makes up for this.

I'm not the only one doing a scary game!

2010-10-11T13:48:00.001-03:00

MightyPirate finally released Harrison's mind Episode 1.

Cool stuff. How he did the intro was a lot more like the movies which is good. I actually thought about doing something similar myself for the atmosphere, but FEAR isn't based on an existing franchise so that wouldn't work out too well. All in all I like it.

I always forgot how big the maps were compared to the player in the campaign. Proportions always looked off for the player character's perspective compared to everyone else.
Besides all that this is pretty cool, nice to see I wasn't the only one who thought shouting "clear" in these lone wolf situations was stupid.

I miss Online Multiplayer

2010-10-09T11:47:00.000-03:00

In case a lot of you weren't aware, when I moved out so I could attend college there were a few setbacks. I already mentioned the sound issue which is more or less fixed...sorta.

What hasn't been fixed is that the internet service I get up here is wireless and provided by the school campus wide. Meaning I can't play any of my games online with anyone and any games I have that require me to be connected to the internet even for single player are useless.
I'm back home for the Thanksgiving weekend (Canada remember?) so I can get back into gaming again but only while I'm here. As soon as I leave I'm shit out of luck. Only option I have to get around this is to get an entirely separate ISP to provide me with a fast connection, which will cost me money I don't have.

It does work out a little well because this way I can focus on my work more. Still though, I'm pretty sure The Shining started out like this and we all know how Jack Nicolson's character handled it. Did I mention I don't get any TV either?

Anywho, just me feeling like bitching about stuff that's completely irrelevant to you guys. This doesn't prevent me from recording footage or playing this my purely offline games either. So don't worry about it.

Also...

If you don't cry man tears after seeing this then you need to play Mass Effect 1 and 2 now!

10 is here...Finally!

2010-10-02T18:57:00.000-03:00

Hell yeah! Got it done! And with a little extra to boot. Hope you guys enjoy this. Gotta work on 11 now, I'm hoping to get to the end of Interval 3 in at most 2 more episodes so we get at the real meat of the game.

Until then!

I'm Getting Close + Other Stuff

2010-09-29T16:44:00.001-03:00

I managed to get a lot of recording done this weekend and even yesterday while nobody was around to be bothered by it. There's a bit more I have to tweak and record again, but this weekend coming up I'm hoping to finish and upload episode 10.

That's as far as video progress is going so far. But I also need to address something I've seen a few comments about. Me and the rest of the Mind Series (the most popular ones anyway).
There's been a fair number of people who have been bugging me to start bugging Krimsin or MightyPirate or even Corky about paying attention to my series.

To this I say, no, N O no.

Would I like the surge in popularity and subscriber increase? Sure! But that's not how to go about it. Those guys got their popularity on their own merits (everyone searching for Half-Life based mind series probably helped too) and that's how it should be. Exposure is something you earn, not force.

Granted, I was the one who contacted Krimisin for Episode 7. But I had a reason to do so and if I have to contact anyone else from that group I'll need another good reason.
It's not hard to email or PM them don't get me wrong, they seem pretty open about that. But you don't email or call somebody for the sake doing so. That's just stupid, especially if you do it over and over again.

Bottom line, I'm not going to do it because it's rude. If I get noticed at all by anyone else I'd prefer they find me themselves or have a friend tell them. Word of mouth is the least obnoxious form of marketing, and the last thing I need is to be an asshole to people I admire.

200 Subscribers!

2010-09-25T21:01:00.000-03:00

Yeah...I got nothing so here's some crap.

I sincerely apologise

Lookie at what I Draw'd!

2010-09-18T19:43:00.001-03:00

Partly because I wasted a lot of time on this but mostly because I want to make you guys know I'm not dead. Well at least for those who actually read this damn thing. I coughed this up after having a dumb idea during class.

The Point Man

Basically I had this idea of taking sound clips of all the mind series characters (this is mine in case you're braindead) and making a sort of Street Fighter-esque showdown thing. It wouldn't actually be a game of course but a sort of animation made to look like one. Check this out for an idea of what I'm talking about. Anyway I realized as soon as I started drawing that, I can't draw (see series intro screen). So that kinda put a damper on things, I had time though so I worked on making this not suck as badly and this is the result. Even got bored today and did this with him.

He Moves!

Kinda cool. Again though I'm not sure why I did it at all. I seriously can't draw and only made it look halfway decent like this due to tracing on the computer. But like I mentioned I also felt like I should put something up since recording any voice over is a no go for now.
If somebody else wants to steal this idea go ahead. Unless I somehow pull artistic talent out of my ass, two random pictures on the internet these will stay.

All Settled in

2010-09-09T19:56:00.000-03:00

So I'm pretty much settled into residence right now. Internet works fine and I'm pretty confident I can manage everything. Only one problem is getting in the way of things.

These walls are paper thin.

As I'm typing I can hear somebody playing their guitar 8 rooms away. And I checked, both of us have our doors closed too. This puts a serious damper on my plans to still continue The Point Man's Mind as there is literally no way I can remove all of this background noise (there's too much, I tried). On the other side of that if I start recording dialogue and I end up screaming or yelling (I will there's no way around that)I'm just going to get complaints about it from the neighbors. Which will suck because people have been kicked out of this place for that, but also because I don't like bothering people with noise.

Obviously I have to find some way around this. I won't be giving up but this is going to take longer than I thought. Figured I should let you guys know ahead of time.

G'night

9 Is Uploaded

2010-09-06T01:36:00.001-03:00

I worked hard to bring this one out a little sooner than usual seeing as of monday I will be moving to a new town. Its for college so I don't know how temporary or permanent me living up there will be. But it will mean a decrease in activity as I'm taking this very seriously.

This should tide you guys over for a bit and I will be making a new episode before 2011 comes around that's a promise. But I still need to rearrange my setup. Make sure sound for me and my neighbors isn't a problem for one, of course there's also the fact I don't want this getting in the way of school and actually getting internet access.

On the bright side, I noticed Youtube increased their video limit to 15 minutes now so expect episode 10 to be a longer one. Also to celebrate how much support of got on this series I've got another surprise in mind for episode 10 as well.

See ya soon!

Episode 8!

2010-08-27T01:45:00.000-03:00

A day later than I intended but now nothing is in the way of working on episode 9 before the school year starts! Like I mentioned earlier 1 third of the process is already done so that will speed things along. In the meantime enjoy!

Episode 8 is almost finished

2010-08-20T09:39:00.001-03:00

So just have a bit more patience for that. I've already got the footage recorded so all thats left is to record the dialogue. Which I don't have a lot of time to do during the week. Other things have been getting in the way as well, I'm starting up a college course in the fall so my attention will be geared towards that for a while. But fear not, I've already run a rough draft of Episode 9 which will mean getting that video done sooner.

I also figured I should address a few things people are messaging me about.
About the SMOD Tactical Lets Play. In case you didn't get the message I sent out after Valve updated HL2 to run off of the orange box engine with achievements, any mods based on the old engine have crapped out. As a result that's going to be on hold until an actual fix is made, the quality just drops too low even for me to show it. That fix doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon however as the team who made the mod is pretty much dead in the water now. If it does happen though, I will be continuing forward with that.

In the meantime KOTOR and Perfect Dark will have to fill in the gaps. KOTOR is taking a bit longer mainly due to tech issues that aren't complete game breakers but still ruin continuity. You'll see what I mean in the next part. Perfect Dark on the other hand seems to be going much better, I've reworked the controls a bit so its closer to its N64 roots. So aiming is now much easier.

Hope that explains the situation a bit better.

Holy Shit Zombies!

2010-08-09T14:02:00.001-03:00

This has got to be the coolest mod I have seen in a while, and they're still improvements to be made. The headtracking tech the guy added in there probably makes it a lot more immersive than it would otherwise. Naturally it probably makes it a lot scarier too, awesome!

Unfortunately I can't play ARMA 2 so watching youtube is the closest thing I can get. If you can play the game with a decent frame rate you might want to check this out.

Episode 7 is up

2010-08-02T12:54:00.002-03:00

Kinda felt this summer was getting a bit boring, so to kick start August I did this a bit sooner than I originally intended. And yes, that is who you think it is providing a cameo.

I came up with the idea a while back but never really took it seriously until the end of episode 6. Luckily Krimsin liked the idea enough to do it. I haven't got any more surprises for the point man's mind aside from this, the character A. Shepherd will return later of course along with Krimsin to reprise his role but thats about it. So far.

Until then. Enjoy!

So, it begins.

2010-07-30T14:41:00.000-03:00

Because updating people on Youtube is flipping annoying, what with video limits and character limits its all a huge hassle I don't think anyone appreciates. I decided to make this as a substitute. So I hope this will make it easier for a lot of people

Not really a "blogger" person myself. I never cared what blogs talked about or ever cared to make one until now. But as a substitute compared to a really really crap update system on Youtube, this works well enough

So that's pretty much what this will be. I'll update here with new videos and try to explain delays and answer questions people have for me here, and every so often I guess I'll post something funny or let you guys know about something I've got in the works.

I've got a few surprises in the works already but I'm going to wait on revealing those at least until I'm half way through one of my projects. In the meantime you can find The Point Man's Mind and other playlists I have here.