The Unexamined Life

Joss Whedon's New Web Musical, "Dr. Horrible"

2008-07-15T17:48:00.003-04:00

This was the best part of my day: Joss Whedon has produced a three-part web musical starring Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion called Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

And I love it.

The premise is simple. NPH plays Dr. Horrible, a wannabe villain on a mission to be accepted in the world's league of evil. He pines after a local girl in his city and is generally very like-able. Which is to say, he's not very good at being evil. During his latest get-evil-quick scheme, his plans are thwarted by brainless super hero Captain Hammer, as portrayed by Nathan Fillion.

The production value is fine; this is definitely a web series. I've heard that Whedon produced the entire three-part series for under six figures! Impressive. The songs are catchy and fun. The acting is stellar. C'mon, it's NPH and Nathan Fillion, what more do geeks want? They are the dreamiest geeky actors out there.

I promise I'm straight. Look! It's my fiancee: http://picasaweb.google.com/manglass/June28th2008AllieODellSWedding/photo#5219944756923886402

P.S. Link to Dr. Horrible blog.
P.P.S. This is so popular that the site is probably down. Figures! Anyway, the series will only be hosted for free until the 20th. I recommend just getting it on iTunes. It's four dollars!

Sitting at the terminal

2008-06-27T18:09:00.001-04:00

I'm at the airport. Again. Can't seem to get away from this place all summer! Oh well, at least the significance of being here means I am meeting friends and loved ones at some point today =)

This time I am off to the state of new york for a weddng. Can't seem to get away from those either! This summer there are four weddings, one a month from may to august. They also coincide with my Lisa time! Speaking of that beauty, things are going very well with us. We are excited about living together this fall and researching possible locations for the wedding. Asheville is promising; we are checking out two venues on Monday.

My plane is now boarding, TTFN!

Spore Creature Creator

2008-06-18T16:16:00.002-04:00

For my subterranean readers, EA released the trial version of the Spore Creature Creator for free on this very same Internet. Grab it here!

This software is amazing! Creating interesting aliens is a snap and tweaking them to perfection is oodles of fun. That's right, oodles.

Here are short clips of my first three abominations:

Beelzebubble

Fakebutt

Barney

Send me links to your creatures!

Follow Up to Cool Idea #9764

2008-06-17T11:35:00.000-04:00

First, you may want to read the inital post for this topic here.

It looks like someone has already implemented the idea and rather well! The software has been named sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! and the developer in the video sounds Scandinavian. Most impressive is the fact that it renders so close to real time! I can't wait for him to release the code (or binaries!) so I can check out his work.

GameStop, I HATE You

2008-06-16T12:04:00.000-04:00

Seriously? Also, if you own a PS2 without Katamari, fix yourself.

Recently Consumed Media

2008-06-14T15:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a bunch of entertainment I've been meaning to write about. Monster post!

Games
Grand Theft Auto 4 - My anticipation level for this game was high. High enough to take me to the midnight release at Best Buy. Not having played any other game in the series, my excitement for this game laid in the promise of compelling narrative and fun multiplayer modes. GTA4 succeeded on several fronts. Rockstar delivered a living, breathing city in which I was introduced to and drawn in by characters that walk the lines of stereotype, but ultimately deliver entertaining stories. I was initially impressed with the direction that I felt Rockstar was taking with the narrative, but halfway through the game, it starts to fall flat. Most characters have specific segments during which they are introduced and shortly thereafter leave Niko's path. It feels like these segments were produced separately, perhaps by different writers, and they just don't come together in an interwoven story. The sad thing is they could have and made for a masterpiece of criminal drama. As a whole, the game is technically excellent and pushes triple-A game boundaries in the right direction.

Age of Conan - OK, so I didn't think I would be playing another MMO this year. This game was literally off my radar until a week prior to launch. A couple work buddies were playing with the beta and describing the enhancements to MMO combat and intricacies of the hybrid classes. It sounded enticing so I figured I'd give it a whirl, at least for the first 30 days of subscription.
Visually, the game is leaps and bounds ahead of all current fantasy MMOs. Texture fidelity, landscape, and view distance are all spectacular. The style goes for a "realistic" approach, so World of Warcraft's distinct art style still gives it an aesthetic edge and I'm sure it will for a couple more years to come.
I do love the combat. It's fast, visceral, and engaging. Players are required to swing their weapon manually, rather than rely on auto-attacking and using an ability here or there. Attacking in the right direction, responding to incoming attacks with defense of your own, and lining up enemies for maximum damage are all superior combat concepts. I applaud Funcom for incorporating such a signifcant level of collision detection in an MMO.
AoC can practically be played as a single player game. The first 20 levels are completely voice-acted and do a wonderful job of immersing the player in the world of Hyboria. The game takes on a more familiar MMO path after level 20, with quest hubs that mostly consist of "Kill 10 of these" or "Find 10 of these", but if you actually pay attention to the NPC conversations, you discover there are more interesting stories at play than World of Warcraft. Quests are pretty easy to complete on your own, even inside dungeons. I have yet to enter a dungeon that requires a full six-character team. I don't know why that is... perhaps they made those more for levels 30+ or perhaps I'm just not in the right areas.
It's hard not to compare a new fantasy MMO to WoW, but really there's not a whole lot a developer can do in the genre unless it tries to compete with the king.

Movies
Dan in Real Life - I found my second favorite movie. It was a real surprise as I didn't see any hype leading up to the theatrical release or any mention of it in the various award shows. How the hell did that happen? This movie has a PERFECT script, PERFECT acting, and a PERFECT soundtrack. Steve Carrell delivers his best performance as a widowed father of three daughters on his way to the yearly family reunion at the cabin. He meets a woman in town and has an instant connection with her, only to discover she is currently dating his brother. The uncomfortable situations he is placed in are reminiscent of Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents, yet completely realistic, heartfelt and still funny.
The script is just plain smart. Events and motives are intelligently crafted to appear natural and then come full circle to have a greater meaning or influence in the film. For example, each of his daughters have what appear to be a typical teenage girl problem that Carrell's character has trouble dealing with. By the end of the movie, each daughter's problem plays an important role in teaching their father a life lesson. Brilliant stuff. The lighthouse scene is wonderful, as is the family talent show. HIGHLY recommend this film to all.

Indiana Jones IV - One of the worst movies I've ever seen. Never have I wanted to walk out of a theater more. I only stayed because I just had to know if it got better. It didn't. Horrible characters (despite decent acting), horrible plot, horrible continuity. GAH!

Juno - Wonderful movie. Charming performance by Ellen Paige. Good writing that I've never seen before. It was natural yet provocative at the same time.

Good Luck Chuck - Funnier than I expected. I like this new "heartfelt" comedy genre that is developing. Stuff like Knocked Up, Wedding Crashers and some others are really delivering for me.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - AWESOME drama. Great performances by all involved and a heart-pounding story. Intriguing use of cutting to different times in the story to increase suspense.

Iron Man - Best comic book movie in a while. That is, until The Dark Knight comes out in July! Robert Downey, Jr. breathes life into what I consider an uninteresting hero. The movie took itself seriously, which is a great direction when adapting comics to film. Despite all the technological feats that Tony Stark achieves, something about the movie didn't require that much suspension of belief. Great summer action movie.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry - Meh. I liked the combination of Adam Sandler and Kevin James; they have good screen chemistry. I liked the overall pro-gay message of the movie, great choice to put the characters in the New York City fire department. The jokes just didn't hit laugh out loud levels, nor was the script that good.

Music
Sondre Lerche - FANFUCKINGTASTIC! Incredibly smooth acoustic guitar folk music. Beautiful male vocals. I was just introduced to this guy because he did most of the Dan in Real Life soundtrack. I'm currently listening to his entire discography! Please go listen to his stuff! Personal site -- Last.fm link

Shaimus - You may recognize the band name from the bonus section of Guitar Hero 1. The high-energy track "All of This" quickly became one of my favorites in the game. I recently decided to get their album, looking for more of what I saw in "All of This", yet the rest of the songs on the album are quite different. Instead of high-energy, most of the tracks are pleasantly slow and easy listening. Kind of reminds me of Snow Patrol's Eyes Open album.

Weezer - The Red Album is out! And it's... OK. Only a few of the tracks are truly reminiscent of traditional Blue/Green album energy, but the rest are still enjoyable. I like the Make Believe album over this one, but I certainly won't pass over this.

Black Stone Cherry - I meant to blog about this band earlier in the year. Great modern southern rock. If Lynyrd Skynyrd were still around, I have to say they might be making music like this today.

The Format - Wonderful indie rock. Highly recommend if you enjoy Sondre Lerche.

Nine Inch Nails - This is a recent discovery for me. I had never really listened to NIN before, under the assumption that the music just wasn't for me. Forget that! They've actually turned me onto industrial rock as a genre.

Other enjoyable stuff I'm listening to: Aberdeen City, Anna Nalick, Cake, Coheed and Cambria, From Exile (c'mon, new album!), The Mars Volta, Voxtrot.

playing & watching conan simultaneously

2008-06-11T17:54:00.001-04:00

Animoto = clapclapclap

2008-06-03T16:56:00.000-04:00

First, check this out.

Those are pictures in my Picasa album, but I didn't make any of that! It is the handiwork of Animoto. It's a service that creates music videos based on your pictures. Videos that are far superior to any photo slideshow to date. The final product is nothing short of breathtaking! My mind is blown by the amount of aesthetic interest generated by adding some cool transitions and music to a set of pictures.

30-second clips are free to make. Full-length videos can be purchased for $3 each. Pictures can be imported from any major photo-hosting site. Videos are rendered on the Animoto servers and can be exported to YouTube or embedded in any major social networking site.

Animoto is seriously cool software. The burden of editing, compiling, and hosting is 95% of the work that goes into such a medium. For those interested in making slideshows for an event, a fond memory, etc, $3 is friggin' chump change in comparison to what you might pay an amateur film student for something like this.

If I had cyberspace arms and legs, I would give Animoto a standing ovation. Since I don't... /standing-o

she said "yes"!

2008-05-25T20:02:00.001-04:00

Cool Idea #9764 - Recreating Audio With Video Clips to Produce a Video Collage

2008-05-13T16:07:00.000-04:00

Recreating Audio With Video Clips to Produce a Video Collage

First let me explain the concept. Say "hello" out loud. Go ahead, people around you won't think you're weird. Maybe. An audio clip of your "hello" can be recorded digitally. It can be matched as a loose similarity to an audio clip of me saying "hello". You can experience audio recognition in technology like an automated telephone response system. Call UPS if you've never interacted with one. This "loose" relativity is useful, but my ideas are rarely useful. Only neat. What about "tight" relativity? What if your "hello" clip was digitally altered to sound like mine? What if I took 1,000 audio clips of people saying "hello" and cut tiny bits and pieces out of each one to make a best fit to approximate a recreation of your clip? This is the basis of my concept.

Here is a clip from Live Free or Die Hard that's an example of a video collage cut together to recreate a written speech.

Cool, eh? The writers made a script for the message to be broadcast, then cut bits and pieces of audio from presidential speeches and edited them together to create a video collage to tell the message. This is a perfect example of where I'm coming from. Only I want to take it much further.

In the movie, the process started with text and some editing crew manually searched for video clips that used the words from the speech. If this were to be automated, a computer would either:
- have to know how to sound out the original text in order to search audio clips for matches
- or, have some text document of all the words represented in the library of audio clips with which to match the search parameters.

Forget all that, let's do something easier. Let's just take in audio as a source and match it to audio clips. Take text out of the equation. As input, say our sample audio is you saying the words "don't fly through the air on a banana". Then, we give a computer access to 1,000 feature-length movies. The algorithm could search for each complete word in the audio of its library and put together clips that match at some forgiving percentage. An unoptimized algorithm would probably take a few days of computing time, but that ain't too bad. At the end of it, you would have a totally cool video of compiled clips where the audio is the words (or close to them) that you originally recorded. Much like the clip from Live Free or Die Hard.

I'm not done yet.

What about exact (well, >90%) replication of your audio input? What if we even wanted the output to SOUND like you? Instead of returning entire words that are loosely similar to what you recorded, what if the algorithm took tiny snippets of length 1/30 of a second and did a best fit? It would take far, far longer to complete, but the result would be a visual assault of video collage. Scenes of movies would be absolutely whizzing past your head, but the audio you hear would be scarily similar to your own voice! This would be very exciting to experience.

Another neat example would be to pass in audio of an explosion. The resulting clip would likely find millions of tiny clips of explosions from movies, all strung together to make a visual representation of the input.

I don't even want to think about the processing time for the precise reproducing algorithm, but what do you guys think about the loose fit algorithm? An application that could accept audio as an input and produce a collage of video clips matching the words?

RyanCast

2008-05-09T18:25:00.000-04:00

Watch live video from GameTap Office on Justin.tv

interactive posters

2008-05-01T11:50:00.001-04:00

Netflix Recommendations

2008-04-21T14:52:00.000-04:00

Netflix is offering a million dollars to anyone who can supply a recommendation system that's 10% better than their currently deployed CineMatch algorithm. Example of why they are paying big $$$ for such an improvement:

They need all the help they can get.

It's an interesting problem to tackle. How do you identify the traits of a movie? Genre is the first that comes to mind, but certainly more is required to recommend a movie. Simple classification such as "Comedy" doesn't necessarily mean I will like Superbad if I enjoyed Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny.

Based on the Netflix website, you can see each movie profile page has several specific categories, or sub-genres. I imagine the current CineMatch system uses these as a tag recommendation algorithm. For example, the page for There Will Be Blood lists these genres:

Drama
Indie Dramas
20th Century Period Pieces
Dramas Based on Classic Literature
Period Pieces
Dramas Based on the Book

As you can see, each sub-genre has its own landing page. If two given movies have a similar sub-set of genre tags and I liked one of them, it stands that I might enjoy the other. Let's go back to the image example up top...

Orange County	BSG: Season 1	Walk Hard
Comedy	Television	Comedy
Teen Comedies	TV Sci-Fi and Fantasy	Spoofs and Satire
--	TV Dramas	Contemporary Movie Musicals
--	--	Blu-Ray

Other than the "Comedy" link, do YOU see any other similarities? I don't.

OK, what else can movies be related on? What about cast and crew? Ah-HA! Orange County and Walk Hard have the same director and both feature actor Jack Black. Are those truly related criteria, though? Jack Kasdan also directed indie crime thriller Zero Effect. If Jack Black was in Zero Effect, would CineMatch have recommended it, too?

Again, movie recommendation is an interesting problem. I wonder if it could ever work like music recommendation engine Pandora. Check out what I mean by reading this page at How Stuff Works. Could we identify such specific things as plot elements as seen on IMDB.com pages? If I liked a movie with a memorable "peacefully gazing at the night sky" scene, could be there be any recommendation significance to a movie with a similar scene?

Anyone want to go for the million bucks with me? =)

p.s. If anyone can find one single similarity between BSG Season 1 and Walk Hard/OC, please comment!

I can't wait... /sarcasm

2008-04-05T13:09:00.001-04:00

here's at least one good reason to have a kid.

HATE ATLANTA TRAFFIC

2008-03-31T19:21:00.001-04:00

but it did inspire me to make interesting use of my phone's panorama feature...

Update City

2008-03-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

I'm alive, I promise! Ever since Brawl came out, my need to blog has decreased. But no longer! The initial clutches of that warm temptress beckon me no more. I don't know if the game is not as good as Melee, my need to play hours upon hours of Smash has faded with time, or if living outside the college atmosphere demands less devotion to the sport. Whatever it is, after the first two weeks of Brawl, I don't feel addicted to it (this is good.)

And now for random updates:

- I spent last weekend with Lisa and others at a cabin in northern Georgia. It was great fun and I hope we make a tradition of the experience. Hot tubs are swell, the view was phenomenal, and there was much rejoicing. I'll never forget challenging myself to Seven-Eleven-Doubles... and losing.

- Saw No Country For Old Men with Jason. Overall, it was a good film. I was on the edge of my seat for 3/4, but then the movie took a sharp turn at Albuquerque and we were left with WTF? faces. If anyone would like to talk about the moral of the story, please leave a comment. If I had to take a guess, it would be that the inevitable self-destruction of society is a difficult thing for the oldest living generation to accept.

- Started watching a BBC mini-series titled "Jekyll". It stars James Nesbitt as a modern descendant of THE Dr. Jekyll. The guy can act, that's for damn sure. Highly recommend at least watching the first two episodes to see true character transformation on camera. If you're not at least intrigued by the first ten minutes of episode one, you're a boring person.

- Bought and finished God of War: Chains of Olympus. It's a good game, no doubt, but it lacks some of the grandeur of the PS2 titles. The puzzles and locales don't measure up to the kinds found in GOW and GOW2. The combat is spot on. The controls feel natural and the spells & weapons fit right in. If you have a PSP, I'd recommend renting it only because of its brevity.

- StarCraft is still awesome. I've been playing some games lately and it's crazy how I'm still improving, even after being out for ten years. That is certainly the hallmark of a solid game. If I can find a simple way to post some replay files, I'll link to them here. I am bouncing off the walls in excitement for the sequel. Here's hoping we get a release date or beta soon. I expect SOMETHING along those lines to be announced at WWI in Paris this June.

- I filmed another set of interviews for GameTap Watch this week. Look for my re-appearance there soon! I haven't heard anything back yet about the interview I did for the PBS show.

- Speaking of GameTap, there is a brilliant game coming out next Tuesday called Captain McGrandpa: Memory of the Forgotten. It's a GameTap Originals title that I highly recommend playing!

- Lisa is the best girlfriend ever. I'm keeping her. <3 <3 <3

- Rock Band! Boston track pack! Six Boston songs to play! Get it!!!

Lara and me

2008-03-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

Thursday afternoon... why won't you turn into Friday afternoon sooner? shed your cocoon and spread those liberating wings

Brawl: The First Ten Hours

2008-03-09T22:00:00.000-04:00

A brief history of my Super Smash Bros. expertise-

I started playing Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 in my first year of college. The game had been out for two years and I'd tried it once or twice in a GameStop, but I didn't get into it until my stay in the freshmen dorms. Smash was easily the most potent bonding medium for my group of friends in the dorm for the whole year. I never want to know how many hours we spent playing that game, but truth be told, it was for the best because as an activity, it tied us together for many years to come. Short story: I played a lot of Smash on the N64. It's one of the few games I say I've "mastered."

That Christmas of freshman year, Nintendo released the GameCube and shortly after, Super Smash Bros. Melee. At first, I rejected the game as radically different. The pacing was frantic and the power of the GameCube rendered some dizzying levels. It took me a few months to come around and get the hang of the changes made to the series. Six years later, I wouldn't say I've mastered it, but I'm as good as I'll ever be. Melee has been a staple of my gaming essence for many, many years. You could say Brawl has a lot to live up to.

We picked up the game from Walmart at 12:01AM on Sunday morning, raced back to the house, and played it for three hours straight. After a brief nap, we clocked in a few more hours (the game says it had been on for ten hours, but I don't believe that!) and here are my initial impressions...

I agree with the early review statements that this game is a fusion of elements from both N64 Smash and Melee. The pacing has been scaled back, quick KO's seem dramatically harder to execute, and items are 100% overpowered.

Brawl introduces mechanics that make for more "error-proof" play. Characters don't fall off the stage as easy due to slower falling speeds and generous edge grabbing. Air-dodging no longer causes the player to lose control... no more accidental self-deaths due to a bad roll. The reduced gravity coefficient both helps and hinders aggressive offense. It is easier to time a connecting juggle or combo, but characters float away at 64-esque angles from even tiny hits.

I see this change to the core gameplay as a way to be more accessible to the Wii crowd, but ultimately maintains the depth of strategy that the hardcore Melee fanatics crave.

So far, my favorite characters are Bowser, Dedede, and Marth. The heavy characters are extremely viable and Marth is a favorite from Melee that fortunately wasn't nerfed! I'm still getting familiar with the changes to Peach; they aren't too drastic and I think she will remain in my top 5.

We don't actually have a Wii in the house until later this week, but I'll hopefully have some more impressions of Brawl soon!

yep, it's fuckin awesome

2008-03-09T01:55:00.001-05:00

I love it. its not exactly what I expected, but its great. new characters are spectacular, levels look great, items are... still broken. more later!

wheeeeeee

2008-03-09T00:30:00.001-05:00

about to start playing!

WE GOT IT!

2008-03-09T00:06:00.001-05:00

what's better... brawl or 13 Going on 30?

at walmart

2008-03-08T23:41:00.001-05:00

we are at walmart to get smash at midnight! also... intoxicated.

first post of the evening

2008-03-08T22:09:00.001-05:00

hey all, im going to try and submit several pictures this evening... the launch of smash brawl!!! we are up in athens for the night, playin a bit o rock band before going to walmart for the midnight launch. more soon!

Best Game I've Played In Awhile

2008-02-27T15:01:00.000-05:00

Grid 16

Summary: Play 16 simple game mechanics one at a time, constantly switching between them at an ever increasing rate.

How awesome is Grid 16? So awesome. The simple game play and lightning fast recognition and reflexes are reminiscent of Wario Ware, yet you're playing it as a challenge to yourself rather than as a party game. This is a similar concept to something I want to see in GameTap... wouldn't it be cool to use save states to jump between the top ten boss battles among all the emulated games on GameTap? Maybe have a timed score based on how long it takes you to beat all the bosses?

I think so... *wistfully gazes to the future*

Jerry Holkins is One of My Heroes

2008-02-27T14:39:00.001-05:00

Today's post at Penny Arcade is both laugh-out-loud funny and heartily poignant.

The back-and-forth argument of PC vs Console is a tired, fruitless effort. It's clear that industry folks and netizens alike are growing weary of the battle. At first glance, Jerry's post has anti-PC sway, but re-reading gems like "hand-built, precision twiddled machine" and "The 1.5 million sales of Orange Box on the console are, to them, something like a rounding error" make me laugh so hard that I know from where his roots grow.

The clash of Jerry and Mike's backgrounds at Penny Arcade will never get old for me, but it's because they make light of what is truly a never-ending crusade of fanboyism, rather than furthering the ridiculous tirades of forums around the net.