Free Trap-Jaw

Comes a time when a man-machine hybrid should hang up his helmet, settle down and start thinkin' on the more meaningful things in life, how to make his peace. Only so long you can run the rat race in third place behind a skeleton and an orangutan.



I recruited and led my own army of rolling barbarians to the doorstep of the place gave me a new lease on life. Good times. But the Sandbowl's empty now. Ole Reese and Baron Roberts been gone a while. Not sure what I'm guardin' against no more.



The other day my buddy Swamp Thing bent himself all outta shape to make a sculpture of me. Nice gesture, but I don't like bein' the center of attention - even in an abandoned stone structure in the middle of the desert. Still, it got me thinkin'.



Things change, right? People grow. How about settin' up a workshop? Get myself a decent lathe, some woodworkin' tools, do a little art of my own. I'll have to dig deep. Deconstruct myself. It's time to round out this "Evil Master of Weapons" schtick.



I'm leavin' head barbarian Gorth in charge of Sandbowl security. He's a good man, knows his stuff. Gonna take myself on a walkabout through the desert here, and when I come out the other side, anythin' could happen. Wish me luck. Maybe I'll be seein' ya.

- Trappy

Four Shadows

If you don't visit my other sites, you may not understand why I'm nearly finished the process of abandoning this blog. It was always planned as a three-year project - and I do have an appropriate finale lined up - but most of the action has been over at Inlanders (a place where you can read about my novel) and Nurse & Patient (a place where you can listen to my band's rough demos). When Mini Nerd goes the way of the dino, that's where you'll find me. stephenreese.com will remain the portal to anything I'm doing on the interwebs, and of course you can look me up on Facebook.

The book and the band are occupying most of my free time, with exciting results. Nurse & Patient is a four-piece at this point; we're starting to sound pretty decent at rehearsal. Query letters for Inlanders are out; I'm in the midst of intense rewrites, illustrations (by lovely Lynnie), and one or two manuscript requests.

For that reason, I'm handing off the reins to my trustworthy support crew. They've valiantly protected the Sandbowl (and this blog) from Tube invasion for well over a year now. But I think a few might exchange guard duty for posting privilege - and posterity. I leave the control console in their able hands (claws, tentacles).

Before I go, here's a video I particularly enjoyed seeing this morning because there's a poem in my book that can be read backwards and forwards, too.

This one's better:



Thanks to James for the link.

Data Corruption

I'm not sure I can think of any post more appropriate for Mini Nerd than this one; we truly are in the final stretch of what this blog could ever hope to accomplish.

Once you've reached apotheosis, where else is there to go, really?

















Thanks to Dan for the links.

Electronica

Happy Friday everyone!



And if you liked that, you're gonna love this:



Thanks to MRK!

Bested

I didn't think it was possible, but the greatest website of all time has been topped:

http://andheneverwilldies.ytmnd.com/

Oh, Ahnuldt. You complete me.

(Thanks to Jason for the link.)

(See also Eeuauaughhh)

Wordy

Taking a break from very busy December to post this lil' collage-confection of recent Nerd words.



Code and composition courtesy of Wordle.

And thanks to Danica for the link!

Mech or Treat

No Halloween post from Mini?

No WAY.

This year, I missed Zombie Walk Toronto, but Lynn helped me celebrate my second-most-favoritest holiday a couple days early, before I hadda hurry off for World Fantasy 2008 to spend hours in the Hyatt bar (and related hospitality suites) boozing and schmoozing with fellow writers.

Thanks for the punkin-carvin' and monster-mashin', sweetie. Your willingness to overlook the faults of seminal zombie entertainments could use some refinement, but there are many more movies during which I can do my damnedest to cultivate in you an unconditional love for the undead.

Thanks also to Kim for linking the following video, the viewing of which damn well better spur fathers everywhere to step up their game in helping tykes truly own the night come All Hallows' Eve.

Feminine Hyena Rabbit

And you know it.

Time And Forgiveness

Hey Stephen, Tyler. I thought I'd send this email to both of you because you like games and have giant brains. ;)

If you get the chance, try a game on Xbox Live Arcade called Braid. It's like Super Mario Bros. These are the instructions:

A Button: Jump. (Jump on monsters' heads to jump higher.)

B Button: Do stuff.

That's it. When you "die" (fall into spikes, run into a monster) you press the X button to reverse time (like Prince of Persia). You can reverse time all the way back to the beginning of a level. There are no limits to your time manipulation. But (and this is the kicker) certain objects can exist outside of time.

For example, you come across a locked door and there's a hole in the ground that contains a key. You jump in the hole, but there's no way out. So you grab the key (which exists outside of time), then you reverse time. The key comes with you as the game rewinds itself like an instant replay, and you're out of the hole but now you have the key. Jump over the hole, open the door and you beat the level. It's simple, but maddening at the same time.

The other strange feature is the use of jigsaw puzzles. In the background to a level (like the clouds in Mario) are picture frames, and scattered throughout the levels are jigsaw pieces. The pieces you pick up and place in the frames become the background to the level, and can be manipulated. So you could come across an impossible jump, but then find a piece that has a drawing of a bridge. Go back, slide the piece into the background:

Presto.

It's too bad neither of you are here, because I think you'd both love it. Stop by sometime and you can try it out.

-d-

Nerd Appreciation II

Three more from xkcd, 'cause they're just THAT good:

Nerd Appreciation

Been a quiet day at work, so colleague Douglas and I have browsed this site in its entirety:

xkcd - A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

Reg'lar readers of Mini Nerd (and friends of the particular nerd who writes this here site) will likely share the sense of humor leveraged by supreme math geek Randall Munroe at xkcd above. In fact, I often thought of my fellow dorks while reading Randall's sweet, brainy strips. So much so, I have some dedications!

This one's for Dave:



Here's something for Lisa and Teresa:



Doogie'll appreciate this:



For Clem and Lisa:



For Neil and Jenn:



For Santino:



For the Absent Canadian (Mike):



For Sandy:



And for Douglas, who sent me the link that started this day of laughing and clicking:

The Search For Schlock

Top search terms finding Mini Nerd this week:

filthy tube
board brothers
miniature nerds
wheelchair person wear pointe shoes
carolyn reese dungeon
sand via blothos
witchery grubs for teething
what is night monkey celebration
anonymous types e.row.dataitem
who needs a cactus chip and dip
masterpagemenuclickhandler
give virtual nerds makeovers
mininerd.com
red tube nerd
cinder nerd
make own mini bike
domain house of the week drew thompson
she got my mind gone raw reese
likin gams
im not gonna write you a love song steve reese
give me some more of the warm little beasts, i'm so fond off
metal deer head, metal stag head
tacklak basher
tukx tube
red tube filth
no motorvation
i was fired twice
barney comic but you said you'd always love me
stephen reese water
blothos device

An effective series of tubes!

I Go Humble

So I can make a sentence. So what?

Watch what this guy can do:

Mission Statement

Fellow Canuck geek Eric Poulton laid down some righteous pixel masterpiecery that to me represents the philosophy of Mini Nerd in its near-entirety. Without further ado, here's "Underneath It All":



To witness more of Eric's genius, visit Where Is My Eyeball.

He also regularly loiters around ConceptArt.org (where the above piece was a contest entry), as do I - except Eric can draw like an angel and I just scroll and drool.

Perfect Wording

http://www.wordperhect.net/

Use: Imagination

Swedes, Filmmaking Frenzies, whatever you wanna call 'em.

I enjoyed these as much as I did their originals!





In the case of this last one, it's so well-done I'm convinced lo-fi special effects can be just as impressive (maybe moreso) than expensive CGI. Using computers to visualize the fantastic has become so commonplace that the effect is cheapened - it's now somehow too easy to achieve suspension of disbelief.

When you see creators using alternate, more imaginative means, the "wow" factor does an about-face and your awe reflects back on the ingenuity of the creator moreso than the verisimilitude of the creation. Who said fantasy had to be so real anyway?

That's what imaginations are for.

I'm all for this new "sweding" movement demonstrating that exorbitant effects budgets do not entertainment make.

Sometimes the spirit of giddy make-believe is all you need.

It's Only A Game

Great time to be alive, innit?





And if you liked that, you're gonna LOVE this:

Turn Turn Turn

The song, if you like, or the karmic wheel.

2007 is done now, and the long night is turning into day again for a spell. I was happy to achieve my goals for the year, even if a few came in past deadline. One such was a move back closer to where I was born, for purposes of helping birth new things, meeting recently-birthed things, and birthing one of my own (on paper, not in flesh). That latter is just about outta me now and into the harsh light of day, so it was time to shift the cycle from nocturnal back to diurnal and depart the lonely home/womb office (so essential to grinding out the novel) for one where a flux of people move all around me every day.

Last but not least (to the tune of 22 kilometers not least) was the half-marathon, which I've run three times now - not to my satisfaction, but run nonetheless. It took a year of training to get to that point in the first place, of course, and it'll take a year more, I'm guessing, to get the finish time I'm looking for. That's why, when I woke up this morning to the following animated .gif on Etherbrian's blog, I was tickled beyond 8-bit pink. It's a friendly reminder that it takes time to turn the wheel.

But if you keep moving, things do change.

To every season, then. Through every season.



P.S. Brian accomplished a goal of his own this month, too - breaking into the ranks of printed Threadless T-shirt artists. I've been a fan of Brian's for over ten years and was happy to pick up a design of his through Zazzle shortly ago. Now I'm even more thrilled to be one of the first to shell out for his Interloper From Beyond The Heavens on starburst orange. Join me!

Off The Wall

Stephen here, stopping in for a moment (and thanks, Blorthos, for looking after the blog - I appreciate it. The long story, much bad, ain't done yet).

For now, you gotta check these guys out:





Thanks to Clem for the links!

A Moss Tor

You know that feeling you get when you read a book, see a movie, hear a song...and you think, wow, this [insert] was made for me? It just fires on all cylinders for the particular molecular makeup that is your curse/blessing in this given world?

Well, I haven't felt it for a while. I'm afeared that's a result of getting older, "growing up", being just a smidgen less receptive to experiencing a work of art for the first time without the "maturity"-imposed matrices for parsing who "made" it (where they come from, what their circumstances were, their limitations, personal hangups, financial situation, patrons real or imagined, etc.) that tend to hang around once you realize it's merely (wo)men who create things less than the universe entire, however direct and uncluttered their connection to the divine may chance to be.

The closest I've come to that kind of relationship with art in, geez, I dunno..."a long time", or something, was tonight. And it wasn't a book, a movie or a song.

It was a videogame.

Thing's called Samorost, and I'm gonna go against my nature here by resisting the urge to look up all the details on who exactly was involved with getting it out there, in the hopes of improving my chances at preserving mystery (and gratitude) for the fruit of their efforts. I know the folks responsible are European, at least. They like imagining things, and they have a kind sense of humor, and they understand game design better than most, and they were likely stoners at one point or another.

Their creation is a dead-simple, point-and-click online game (one part Flash, another part still-frame beauty) where you explore a whimsical alien environment, observe what's happening, and solve cute little puzzles that help you access the next area(s) - in these cases (there are two installments: a trippy original outing that might be especially resonant with the aid of a psychedelic substance of your choice, and a more literal but nonetheless more thematically compact sequel) to improve your chances of saving your odd little homeworld or, even better, your dog.

I have my reservations, of course. There're some puzzles played less intuitive for me, but that likely says more about this overly-critical bundle of molecules than the design itself. And I had to realign my mind to take on the role of a theoretically omniscient God-entity who can modify elements of the gamespace arguably not accessible by my goofy little avatar (whom I came to care about, I'll point out - possibly the highest accolade anyone could afford a videogame, after all). I'm accustomed to playing *as* the character in the space. Here, you're more an audience, but you can facilitate the story (and story there is, I'll be damned, in the most minute dances of cause and effect between various creatures and their respective environments; you'll need to affect both to succeed in your quest). If you can let go an insistence on naysaying logistics and "realism", you'll see playing Samorost is not unlike interacting with a dream.

I'm not sure I have any greater praise for art.

I appreciate dreams, see.

So do check it out, if you're game for this kinda game, and for those of you with children, I urge you play it together. It's appropriate for all ages, indeed, and somehow I know I might certainly have tapped older wells of ingenuity in solving the bugger, had I been just a few decades closer to when I entered this life. More neighbor to when the world was a startlingly open, curious and wondrous place...with nothing but possibility to suggest its edges.

I also dare you not to pay the beyond-reasonable price of around eight bucks to enjoy the third piece of the puzzle, once you've navigated the FREE Samorost 1 and the portion of numero two that's open to everyone. There wasn't really a choice, for me.

Bless these folks. It's a charming diversion.

And thanks to the internet, for another anagram post title. ;)

And kudos to Amo, who posted this game to CM two years ago! (I didn't play it then, but I'm inclined to guess, as always, the timing is better now than I might think.)

-Reese

True Romance

Get this.

An extraordinary ex of mine is throwing all caution to the wind, uprooting from her current reality, and beginning a trek cross-country to reunite with the one true love she's carried a torch for nigh on 15 years (and right through our four-year relationship, which of course complicated matters back then). Turns out the intended soulmate has finally admitted to carrying a torch himself, so the timing is perfect.

I think this is the most romantic thing I've ever seen in the real world and I wish them both the best of luck. B's a practicing chaos magician herself, so she knows exactly what she's doing. See you guys in Montreal this summer, on the other side.

More The Merrier

Please join me in welcoming two new arrivals to the Friends section of the sidebar here at Mini Nerd: the lovely and talented artists Tinselman and Etherbrian.

I've been a fan of Brian's since nigh on my AOL days (i.e. over a decade). If I didn't need to attract a desirable female mate, I'd likely wallpaper my entire home with his glorious pixelated whimsies and smoove vectorific dreamscapes. At the very least, now that I'm past my below-the-poverty-line years, I can't wait to commission (read: pay for) an illustration from Brian to make up for all his free font and icon sets I downloaded back in the day.

Robyn Miller over at Tinselman I've lauded earlier here at Mini Nerd for his work with Cyan on the classic adventure videogames Myst and Riven, and his later collaboration with Keith Moore for the project 1,000 Years and 1 Day by Ambo (a favorite album of mine from last year). That is to say, his output's near and dear to my heart. As for you, if you've any interest in art, Robyn's radar for cool and interesting art-related web links is impeccable.

A warm welcome to Brian and Robyn!

Proud Parasite

Calgary readers:

My buddy Tim has a new show at Art Central downtown. Please go check it out. He's a sweet, caring guy with an incredible skill for drawing robots, monsters, cute girls and assorted undead in an approachable, ultra-fun illustrative style that never fails to win a smile or a laugh from me.

The show is called "Parasitic Tendencies" and tonight at the opening I listened to Tim explain the pieces' titles - they're named after his friends. Partway through the naming process, he realized he was calling his friends parasites, sticking their John Henries under magnified, cartoonish close-ups of internal biological nasties in dayglo red and yellow. Personally, I'm honored to be a parasite on the glowing talent that is Tim - though I didn't see my name anywhere in the titles. Boo.

For the faint of heart, rest easy: it's not just parasites on display. On the other wall is a collection of Tim's gig posters for Broken City, which I am thrilled to own a few of and are, for me, an iconic part of the club's visual imprint. You may have seen them around downtown on telephone poles and such. Tim likes that kids would tear them down and steal them for their own private collections.

Also supercool is that Carbon Media has a great selection of Threadless t-shirts on site for decent prices. I grabbed a ray gun print that will see regular rotation on my torso. And geez, I had no idea Art Central had so many nifty boutiques, galleries and studios to browse. I've usually just breezed in and out to grab breakfast at Siding Cafe, but this time I trolled all three floors and was heartened to see art in the middle of Cowtown. And busy! Lots of people! Even ran into Michal and Aviv.

Here are the precise deets for Tim's show:

Parasitic Tendencies
Carbon Media Design (lower floor)
Art Central
#3 100 7 Ave SW
403-802-0350
info@carbonmedia.ca

NOW WITH HELPFUL DATES ADDED! (thanks Neil)

Show runs from 3 August thru 30 August

Go. Seriously. Check out the rest of the digs too. It's good stuff.

And in case you missed the embedded links above, there's a decent sampling of Tim's work linked here at GigPosters.

Dancing About Thinking

I'm not one for high art.

But I make an exception for Marie Chouinard.



Last night I took my wary gal to see Chouinard's latest, bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS - at Calgary's oldest theater The Grand. This morning I noticed the connection between the building, swathed in construction drapery and girded by temporary scaffold, and the dancers on Chouinard's stage rebuilt by their temporary prosthetic extensions. Within the theater, bodies retrofit. Without, the building undergoing its own remix.



But let me step back for a moment. Marie Chouinard is in my opinion the most talented and visionary choreographer working today. She hails from Montreal but has lived abroad in New York, Berlin, Bali and Nepal. I was introduced to her aesthetic in 2000 with the performance of 24 Preludes by Chopin and Le Cri du Monde and found myself immediately captivated by the precision of her group's movement, the playfulness of her staging, and her perverse sense of humor. Her work appeals to me because it walks a beautiful tension between the sensual and the cerebral. The body is her instrument, no doubt, but she uses its contortions and creations to communicate heady and silly ideas.



In the new bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS, she equips her dancers with walkers, canes and imaginary bodily extensions that both support and limit their range of movement. They wear pointe shoes on their hands and walk like gazelles. They're fitted with poles, rods, ropes and harnesses and scuttle like crabs, dangle like larvae. Dueling females lunge for each other and feint away on glinting steel crutches. Dueling men thrust and parry suspended between barres that make an attenuated boxing ring, their chests and pelvises twin ends of the muscled weapons of their torsos. A single female transposes her body across a five-tiered barre as if it's a musical staff and her limbs the notes, shifting tonality.



The first act felt more intellectual to me, an introduction to and exhaustion of the performance's central ideas. In the second act, I discovered myself emotionally engaged, and more amused, as Chouinard stripped away the pretense of the alien bodily configurations to get at the human cores within. I sympathized with the man on his cane shuffling offstage, shoulders slumping and legs bowed. I felt for the woman rising on wire assemblies, twisting and fighting against her bonds like a caterpillar pushing at the edges of its cocoon for the relief of release.



And I was struck again by something that's been on my mind a lot the last few years: the way time changes our bodies, stunting and sapping their former fluidity and elasticity, their strength and stretch. Time, that most heinous thief, forces us from our four good limbs (if we're lucky enough to start with them all) to an accreted, augmented coral of biomechanical supplements: our walkers, our back and knee braces, our wheelchairs, and finally, that last of the bodily extensions, our deathbed.

Again: Chouinard moves bodies, but she really gets your head going too. It's dancing about thinking.

Good review here: The Dance Current