Okay, I admit it.

I like having different groups of friends. And, depending on the people, I sometimes don't care to intermingle them. I generally like to keep around 2 or 3 friend spheres. And sometimes I don't mind when they overlap. But frankly, I like to keep certain groups apart from certain other groups.

I don't really discriminate against any one group. It's not like I'm trying to avoid any one particular person or group of people. It's just that sometimes I need to hang out with one group of people to get a break from another type of people. It works both ways for all the groups of friends I have. But I like to be able to separate them as distinct spheres.

It's like ice cream. I like chocolate ice cream and I can eat a lot of it. But sometimes I get tired of chocolate and just want plain vanilla. And chocolate ripple doesn't count.

And sometimes facebook ruins that. Sometimes, thanks to facebook, those friend spheres start to overlap when I'd prefer they didn't.

It's a little ridiculous and totally selfish of me. But it bugs me a little.

And in some cases, it just plain makes no sense because one sphere has never met the other sphere and, from my perspective, has no business melding with the other.

Video Games Emulating Real Life

I was playing Fable 2 today and had a moment where the game became just a little bit too realistic. I ate two pies for an energy boost and gained weight as a result. I got a little bit fat, and my clothes look silly now. I need to find a way to work off the fat, and I'm hoping there's a potion or magic item that will do the trick without having to actually work it off.

Just like real life... :-( Which reminds me. I haven't been down to the weight room in over a week.

Yup.

I like Vancouver well enough. I've lived here for about 5 years now. Closer to 6, actually. I've met some good people and generally enjoyed my time here.

But then there are days when I want to just say "F#$k it! I'm moving back to Edmonton!"

I'm In Your Base...

...Reading Your Twitter Feed!

Hypothetically speaking:

Let's say you met a guy or a girl whom you were interested in. And I mean interested in a fairly general sense of the word, although "interested" is probably most appropriate for this scenario. And let's say this guy or girl had a modest online presence. A blog, a Facebook page, maybe a LiveJournal. And they were all easily linked. If you found one, you could find all the rest by following the digital breadcrumbs.

Suddenly, and perhaps unbeknownst to that person, you now have the ability to follow them and learn about them in a limited capacity. And so you do so for a time, as it helps you learn a little about the person in whom you are interested.

What would happen if you met that person days, weeks, or maybe a months down the road? What if you went to coffee with that person? Or joined them for lunch? And what if this meeting were only your second face-to-face encounter? What if everything you knew about this person came from a small library of information that they themselves have posted online?

Would you let on that you've been "following them", or try to play stupid? If the former, would this person be flattered or threatened? If the latter, how long could you keep up the facade before some tidbit slips out and they find out you've been reading their online diary or watching them pour their hearts out on YouTube?

Is there a proper etiquette for this type of thing? Certainly out there in "RL" [Real Life] this kind of thing probably doesn't fly. If you met a person once, got their phone number, address, place of work, etc. and "observed" them without their knowledge or consent it would be considered "stalking". And nobody likes a stalker.

But online the issue isn't as clear. Where do you draw that fine line between "stalking" and "observing"? If somebody is posting their life's details on a public forum then everybody can see it. In a way, those thoughts and details are leaving the realm of privacy and becoming something more akin to public knowledge.

So at what point does observing somebody's online contributions cross that threshold where it becomes creepy? If a stranger who observes remains a stranger, does that make it okay? Is it preferable to make it known that you are following someone's online presence rather than to lurk silently? Should the stranger ever make attempts to cross into the realm of acquaintance or friend?

Maybe somebody has the answers. I don't. But until I do, rest assured any online "stalking" I may be doing is purely innocent.

Who is the mysterious Wolf1337?

We have a Leak! Somebody call a plumber to come and "fix" it. Make sure he brings his silenced pipewrench.

(Somebody anonymously spilled some beans about a previous project at work, and seemed to have rather intimate knowledge of it. I won't discuss any other details here.)

The Problem with Jargon in Game Development

Secondary Title: Why the English Language is Retarded

I've been working on an Unreal Tournament 3 level for a few months now. I ran into a small snag the other day that I wasn't sure how to deal with, so I asked around at work to get a few ideas about what the best approach might be.





The problem was a simple one: I built a level that has a skylight in it. An interior room with windows in the ceiling that look up into the sky. When you're working with most level editors, your world exists in a void of negative space. So if my window is looking out into the sky, it's actually looking out into a spaceless abyss unless I put something behind it. And in UT3 if you don't put something behind it the image will appear to distort and appear corrupted, and that's bad.

I tend to approach projects with a very top-down approach. I'm less interested in the particulars of a game engine, and more interested in high level practical approaches to solving a problem like this. In the case of the skylight I could think of 4 possible solutions:

1. Create an old-school skybox above the skylight
   
2. Place a flat 2D plane above the window with a night sky texture applied to it.
   
3. Build a skydome over the entire level
   
4. Make the windows opaque and fake the sky within the window's material.
   

Any one of these options would be fine. They would all accomplish the same end, but one some would look better than others.

I asked two key people at work about this. One was an artist with a fair bit of technical knowledge and a good handle on UT3. The other was a senior level designer who's got experience with a number of different engines but maybe isn't as artistically inclined. I got two very different answers, and neither one of them were rather appropriate. Here's what I got?

Question: If I make a level with a skylight in it, what's the best approach to putting a sky behind it to avoid tearing?
Designer Answer: What engine are you using? I'd have to take a look at it.
Artist Answer: Oh, I don't know. I've never used a skylight.

And this is the problem with game development and technology and jargon. My question was a high-level one. How to approach the sky for a physical skylight, purely from a very practical theoretical perspective. The designer couldn't provide an answer without knowing what engine I'm in. He's already looking at it from a very technical side. The artist, on the other hand, offered a non-answer because he misunderstood and thought I was talking about a skylight actor, which exists in UT3 but is a light generating entity and is a different issue altogether.

If I had asked a construction worker this same question, I think I would have better luck. Or he'd just want to know why the heck I want to build a sky when there's already one up there.

A simple problem. A simple question. 2 very confused people.

I settled on the fouth option and decided it would be easiest just to fake the sky in the material. That way the windows can stay opaque while giving the illusion of being transparent and I can still render what looks like a sky.

I Hope This Works

I've had a lot on my mind lately. There have been a few things in my life that have been causing me a fair bit of stress. Nothing too serious, but just enough to keep me distracted and distant. My whole family worries about things, so I guess it's in my DNA. But it's time to make a change.

So I'm doing something that I should have thought of a long time ago. Something that will help remove at least one source of stress from my life. With that off my mind, it should allow me to focus on the other things that have been bothering me.

2009 is going to be a turning point for me, I think. Because I'm doing my best to make it one. I've been reflecting on myself a lot lately. Things I like about me, things I don't like about me. And I'm trying to make changes for the better. I'm taking things one step at a time these days and i'm making slow but steady progress. I built up these walls brick by brick, and I'm taking them down again the same way.

If this works out, there will be definitely, be celebrating in order. I look forward to it.