nerdflood

This weekend, I was showing my son some artwork based on the steampunk Star Wars concept and explaining the general idea behind the steampunk subgenre as a whole. Being an avid Lego builder, he was apparently inspired to put together his own steampunk Star Wars creation. I present to you Caleb’s steampunk Darth Vader Lego fig.

There are a couple of beautiful details in this build. I love the white piece on his back that my son tells me is a turbine generator that powers Vader’s suit. And he also thought to re-purpose a telescope from his Lego pirate set as a brass lightsaber handle. Fantastic. I love it!

There’s a couple more pictures on our Brick Boys Flickr photostream.

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I must have a thing for Brad Guigar since this is the second post in a row where I link to him. However, in this case, we are definitely not in agreement. Read what he had to say last week in regards to DC’s current Blackest Night storyline.

Feh. I still say this plot reads like “DC Zombies” — a cheap rip-off of a popular Marvel concept. But it’s the dominant story in the DC Universe right now, so I’m going to at least pick up the core Blackest Night title. But I’m avoiding Blackest Night Batman, Blackest Night Superman and every other off-shoot right down to Blackest Night Metamorpho when it eventually comes out. So I’m gonna pick it up, but I’m holding my nose.

Incredible. Let’s take a look at the two series’ and draw comparisons, shall we?

Marvel Zombies is a standalone series set in an alternate universe from the regular Marvel universe. Essentially the hook is “Hey, it’s Marvel characters! And they’re all zombies!” Hijinks ensue. It’s meant to be humorous, and the first run absolutely was. However, it’s now on its FOURTH incarnation, each one a slight variation on the original theme, and the series has become mired in a thoughtless plot and some horrendously cliched storytelling concepts. Yes, we get it. Zombies are hungry for brains, and they have super powers. Hilarious. At one time, it made for some good jokes, but now it’s become fairly empty, hollow, and repetitious.

DC’s Blackest Night has been building for over a year. Unlike the Marvel Zombies concept, Blackest Night takes place within the actual DC universe. The story is connected primarily to the Green Lanterns, since it’s based around the idea that each reincarnated super hero is given a black ring, but the story is touching every aspect of the entire DC universe: from Superman, to Batman, the Green Lanterns, and even the Teen Titans. Also unlike the Marvel Zombies series, these reincarnations are not necessarily “zombies” in the traditional sense. They look like zombies, but they aren’t hungry for brains or shambling along mindlessly hunting the living. They’re working for a sinister evil shadowy master trying to kill as many heroes as they can. In a parallel story to Blackest Night, you also have the establishment of the entire spectrum of Lantern colors, each representing an emotion. The black lanterns and their connection to death ties into this story. If you look past the idea of “oh, it’s just zombies” you quickly realize that there is actually a unique and complicated story being woven together.

The plot to Blackest Night does not in any way, shape, or form read anything like a “cheap rip-off” of Marvel Zombies. You have to completely remove yourself from reality in order to claim that. If anything, DC is giving us an example of how you are supposed to do a “zombie story” in a comic book universe. It’s practically a giant middle finger to Marvel saying “your stuff was kinda cute, but let us show you how you really do a zombie series.” And it works.

How well does it work? Well, I see in the most recent Previews that Marvel appears to be currently doing a brand new, more serious (can you use that word in regards to a zombie comic book?) reincarnated super hero zombie series called Necrosha as a part of their series’ X-Force, New Mutants, and X-Men. My goodness! How completely original! So, wait a second, wait a second — I thought Blackest Night was nothing more than a cheap knock-off of Marvel Zombies? Now Marvel is doing their own cheap knock-off of an existing cheap knock-off? Man, I’m really confused now.

Moral of the story: there’s a reason I don’t read Marvel comics anymore. Read Blackest Night. You’ll be glad you did.

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It’s obviously a fairly incendiary title for a blog post, but one that I feel is for the most part true. My thoughts on this were sparked by a blog post by Brad Guigar over on Webcomics.com called Writer’s Block: It’s a Myth where Brad muses in a straightforward way that writer’s block is not an excuse for an artist’s inability to create something.

Some ideas are good, some are mediocre and others are brilliant. But they’re all nearly equal. Why? Because art — all art — isn’t ideas.

Art is the execution of an idea.

Look back on any time you’ve experienced what others call writer’s block. I’ll guarantee you that you had ideas in your head, but yet you were unable to move forward. You were unable to move forward because you lacked confidence in any of your ideas.

I’m in nearly full agreement with Brad on this issue. Any time I’ve had “writer’s block” in the past, it hasn’t been for a lack of ideas. Ideas are easy. It’s in selecting the right idea and moving forward that stills your hand and chills your spine. There’s a certain level of fear inherent there, I think. What if I pick the wrong idea? What if the entire concept falls flat because I chose poorly? What if? What if? And the cascade of “what if” scenarios form into a wall of trepidation that we commonly refer to as “writer’s block”. One commenter on the Webcomics.com discussion really nailed it on the head. Writer’s block is really a problem of perfectionism.

Consider a sculptor. He’s worked hours on completing a sculpture of a person. He gets 95% of the way through and gets to the face. And he doesn’t know what to do with it. The problem here isn’t an external blockage of creative flow. It’s the fact that that sculptor knows whatever he does to that face will affect the quality of the rest of the sculpture. If he makes a mistake, he might feel compelled to ditch the entire thing and start over. Perfectionism is causing him to lose confidence in his abilities.

In reality, when faced with those situations, we need to push through and just get it done. If you’re writing, put words on the page. Painting? Put some color on that canvas. Sculpting? Chisel out those last details in any way you can. It may not be your best work, but it will get done. Then you assess the completed work, and either start over from scratch, or call it good and move on to the next project.

NaNoWriMo is a perfect example of this. Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Don’t worry about how well it comes together, don’t nitpick over details or obsess about the tone and pacing. Just write. Write like you’re on a deadline, because you are. And someday, when you become the amazing author you hope to be, you will be under an actual deadline. You don’t have time for mythical beasts such as “writer’s block” to get in your way, because you have a work to complete and an editor that wants it done now.

We as a society love to think of art as INSPIRATION and BEAUTY and PASSION and HEART. And don’t get me wrong, it absolutely is. But there are those that think any artist should be able to throw paint on a canvas and have art simply appear from the midst of chaos. Unfortunately, creative efforts are seldom like that at all. Let us not forget the old motto, which holds true today just as well as it did when Thomas Edison said it back in the early 20th century: “Success is 10% inspiration, and 90% perspiration.” There’s a flash of GENIUS, a spark of INNOVATION, and then nothing but WORK and TOIL and PAIN and EFFORT until your piece is completed.

Art is work and writer’s block is a myth.

The idea here isn’t to suggest that all artists that claim to have experienced some sort of creative block are lazy or weak-willed. Absolutely not. What I’m suggesting is that collectively we within the artistic community need to work diligently to pound the concept of creative block into submission. If it isn’t a myth to you already, you need to make it a myth. It needs to be the stuff of legend, locked away in an ancient tome to be discovered by archeologists centuries from now who pore over the script and interpret all of the myriad ways in which our society chose to build up imaginary barriers to our ability to create magnificent works of artistic appeal.

Don’t make writer’s block the bogeyman that comes to steal your precious artistic talent. It isn’t there, it doesn’t exist. There is only you and your art, and nothing can stop you from creating something unique, powerful, emotional, and beautiful except for you. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It simply has to be. It isn’t going to be the last thing you ever create, so don’t act like the world rests on it being absolutely flawless.

Just. Create.

It’s a bit late for Christmas, but I don’t mind one bit.

You may recall back in late December I highlighted some Christmas music for gamers (not surprisingly, this post is still on the front page. Yes, I update THAT infrequently). In that post, I had mentioned the excellent 8-Bit Jesus album by Doctor Octoroc. Unfortunately, I never bothered to mention the problems Doc Octoroc was facing. Just prior to Christmas, he had discovered that his beloved dog needed surgery. He pleaded with his new found audience that had come to his site in droves since he released the initial 9 tracks to his album. He asked for nothing more than some donations – anything anyone could give. A $15 donation would gain you a small present in the form of a physical copy of the 8-Bit Jesus album that would be sent after the holidays.

Well, I couldn’t ignore a story involving a needy animal. Plus, the album really is phenomenal. So, I went ahead and donated.

Christmas came and went. Doc’s pup got the surgery he needed. Life went on, and I completely forgot about the album. Until today.

Here it is. Click the image for a full set of “unboxing” photos of this gorgeous album. Doc had the album professionally done, and I think the result is absolutely spectacular. I honestly don’t feel that my meager donation was really worth this amount of effort, but I appreciate the gift nonetheless. The music on the disc is really just a bonus at this point.

Thanks, Doctor Octoroc!

I admit it. I have a thing for chiptunes. Especially when the songs are developed using the same tools that crafted the music that shaped my childhood. The soundtrack to my youth consists of music from the Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Castlevania, Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Bionic Commando, Final Fantasy, and Ninja Gaiden (amongst others). If you’re anything like me, you have a similar soundtrack playing through your head constantly. If that’s the case, then I have the Christmas music collection round-up for you.

Doctor Octoroc released the first nine tracks to his Christmas album 8-Bit Jesus a little over a week ago. At the time, he claimed that another nine tracks would be forthcoming to complete the album, and he has made good on that promise. Each track of the album is a lovingly-crafted masterpiece of NES chiptun-ery. However, not only is each song a spirited re-imagining of a Christmas classic, but they are also performed in the particular style of a classic NES game. Enjoy such creations as Ryu the Red-Nosed Ninja, Carol of the Belmonts, and Icarus! the Angels Sing.  Truly the best Christmas NES chiptune album I’ve ever come across.

A relatively new entry in the NES chiptune Christmas music scene (which is probably a pretty small scene, to be perfectly honest) is Merry Pixmas from Pixelmod Records. The Merry Pixmas album contains recreations of Christmas music with NES chiptunes, but with the artists allowing themselves a bit more “freedom” in how the songs were interpreted. This album also moves beyond the “classic” Christmas songs, and delves into territory that includes re-imaginings of Somewhere in My Memory (from Home Alone) and Christmas Time is Here (from Peanuts). Not without its minor flaws, Merry Pixmas is still a very festive album indeed, and an essential part of the Christmas music collection of any true gamer.

You can’t talk about Christmas music created with chiptunes without mentioning the 2003 album the 8bits of Christmas by the 8bit Peoples. Definitely the forerunner in the movement, 8bits of Christmas veers away from NES chiptunes and into the greater realm of 8-bit audio, including such classic machinery as the VIC20, Atari 2600, and yes, even a Japan-only Sharp X68000. This album adds a lot of variety to the formula with some very inventive use of the most archaic blips and bloops thought lost to time. 8bits of Christmas is truly an ingenious and inspired work, and deserves to hold several places in your iPod this Christmas.

Have you got more Christmas music that gamers should be listening to? I’m sure we would love to hear it. Leave a comment!

Down below, on the left is the new City of Des Moines logo. Right next to that is the old logo. The old logo definitely looks dated, and was desperately overdue for a makeover, having been designed by cavemen in the late paleolithic era (oftentimes referred to colloquially as “the 70′s”). The new logo looks better, but there are elements that do not speak to me at all.

My thoughts on the new logo parallel Mike Templeton‘s on many aspects. I love the smooth blue gradient on the arch. The font was an excellent choice; it has a very causal urban feel to it. The placement of “Des Moines” beneath the left foundation of the arch, with the right section sweeping down off canvas is a beautiful design element. The white silhouette of the city skyline with lighter blue gradients acting as a background is gorgeous. I personally would have moved the “City of” to be immediately above “Des Moines”, a bit off center, to pull the eye inward. As it stands, the “City of” just kind of dangles there, as though it’s waiting for someone to cut it off completely; like a hangnail. But overall, many of the design choices are excellent and work well for a city logo.

The problem is: this isn’t a logo for Des Moines.

Rider Way, Des Moines, Iowa - photo by bridgepix

Granted, it is technically the new City of Des Moines logo, but it probably shouldn’t be. This very simply looks like a logo design intended for another city. The most prominent element of the logo is the giant blue arch. Des Moines the city doesn’t have a giant arch design element; I don’t quite understand why Des Moines the logo does. Supposedly the element is meant to capture the essence of our new pedestrian bridges spanning I-235. While those bridges are definitely attractive, there’s only three (thanks @awesome_andrea), and they’re fairly recent integrations into Des Moines’ overall infrastructure. I don’t know that they define Des Moines enough to be such a prominent element in our logo. To me, it looks like we’re highlighting our giant arch, which doesn’t really exist.

Let’s see, who around us has a giant arch? Well, our neighbor to the south does. Maybe they would like to use our new logo design for themselves. As it stands, I’d rather see a new logo that actually shows what makes Des Moines unique. I don’t know exactly what that might be, but it has to be something better than a non-existant giant arch.

UPDATE: I just found the St. Louis logo. Dear god, is it even possible? We actually have a better St. Louis logo than St. Louis does.

I missed giving Rainwave some much-needed attention in the past couple of months, which is an especially grievous crime given the fact that so much has happened to the service recently.

What is Rainwave? It’s a service that streams music via an ogg vorbis stream from seven generations’ worth of excellent video games. Not only that, but the website is a slick presentation of style and functionality. Create an account and you can interact with the sites fellow users. For instance, during each song, three choices are displayed for the next song. Each member can vote on their favorite, and the song with the most votes gets played. You can also request playtime for your favorite song from Rainwave’s extensive collection of video game music. It’s an amazing system that works perfectly and provides great music and ample entertainment.

I first mentioned Rainwave back in June of last year, just after it was launched. Since then, the site’s creator, Robert McAuley, has acquired popular streaming video game music site Ormgas. Ormgas was a site that streamed music from the enormous (and growing) library of video game remixes hosted at Overclocked Remix. Now, all of that music has been transferred to Rainwave and has been available for your listening pleasure since the end of June.

Due to the fairly drastic difference between the two libraries of music, they are available under separate streams.

• The standard Rainwave stream plays only original, unaltered video game music
• http://rainwave.cc/rainwave.m3u

• The Ormgas stream plays customized remixes of classic video game music from Overclocked Remix
• http://ormgas.rainwave.cc/ormgas.m3u

So, nominees for the Hugo awards have been announced. Here’s my thoughts:

Nominees for Best Novel

• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union Michael Chabon (I haven’t read this one yet)
• Brasyl Ian McDonald (haven’t gotten to this one, either)
• Rollback Robert J. Sawyer (nope, haven’t read it)
• The Last Colony John Scalzi (I’ve read Old Man’s War and Ghost Brigades…but not this one)
• Halting State Charles Stross (you guessed it; haven’t read it)

And I’m not even touching novellas and short stories. Seriously, am I that far behind in my science fiction reading? My reading stack contains books that were nominated for Nebulas and Hugos back in 2005 and 2006.

I blame my slippage on apportioning too much of my time to the worlds of Harry Potter and the Starks, respectively, not that I begrudge any time spent within those wonderful fictional universes. It was just proportionately misaligned.

In the time I was trudging through Half-Blood Prince and Storm of Swords, amazing science fiction novels were gracing the shelves, and I was carelessly ignoring them. Either I’m a fool, or a drone, in any case, I have a monumental task ahead of me. I need to get caught up on all of the fantastic science fiction that’s been written in the past couple of years, starting with the Hugo nominees for this year.

Any other suggestions? Yikes. I don’t even know where to go next.

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.

A good number of popular webcartoonists have Twitter accounts these days. I follow a small sampling of these excellent creative individuals, and happened to catch onto something marvelous that came absolutely out of nowhere today.

Rene Engstrom, the Swedish creator of the comic Anders Loves Maria, posted a tweet this afternoon:

Ok Twitter! I’m taking silly sketch requests! Give me ideas I’m feeling retarded!

Well, since you asked… I went ahead and twittered back:

a magical penguin in a fight with a super-panda

Surely she won’t draw something so absurd. Will she? Apparently, she will!

Fantastic! Thank you, Rene! It’s absolutely wonderful.

More of Rene’s amazing Twitter-requested creations can be found here.