Tool post!
I say
tool instead of
tools because I found only one so far that I know I'm most likely to use. I checked out the Firefox extensions/add-ons page that Sandon has posted to his blog, and I downloaded myself the FireFTP program, which is a free (!!) FTP program. I tried a hand at trying to get Fetch, but it was only available free as a trial. I hate that, so I tried my best to find something free. And it worked! It takes a little bit a patience to actually get how to use it, but I got the hang of it ... eventually.
Go
here to get it.
(I'll try and add to the list as I find more tools I'll be using. Squee!)
the "hyper" projects, plus my own.
Hyper project #1: Studiocleo.com - I like the idea of images mixing with poetry, and this is the basic setup for this project. The poetry is interesting, but a part of it is a little bit confusing. I can't tell if the creator intended the poetry to clash with the images, or to have them in synch with them. At times, it seems like that might be true, but most of the time, it's a lot of the same images. I also at some point lost track of the poetry. The poetry is "life" heavy ... questions about it, mostly. The images are of everyday things: waiting for a bus, sitting on a bench, some street signs. Maybe the point of it was to have the mundane appear to be something extraordinary. I didn't love it-love it; I would say I was just intrigued by it. But I got tired of clicking on each image after a while. There doesn't really seem to be an end to the project, and there's nothing that indicates when it was created, or why.
Hyper project #2: http://www.391.org/29/ - I must be good at picking weird projects ... it's weird that it reminds me a little bit of Urban Dead, with the map. None the less, this one is better than the first one that I picked. I don't really know what it is, or have no way of giving it a name. You click on different parts on the map, and it takes you different places. As soon as I clicked on the doctor's office, a song began to play. I can't name the rap group, but they sound really familiar. I'd hate to say the wrong group... The Roots? Oh, nobody rag on me, please. The one thing I found to be really interesting about it was clicking on the Central Periodical Company, on which you can click on the magazine section or newspaper section. I chose the newspaper section, and it shows an article about the Mayor of a city. But once you run your mouse over it, there are corrections/criticisms in red over the article, which is a cool idea. I suppose the name of the project, which is "Access Points" does have a meaning to it. It's a huge project, and I have yet to go over every single thing.
As for my own version of a interactive/hyperfiction project, the only one that I can really grasp right now is just going with the one that we worked on in class. As of right now, it's just in a beginning stage, and to sum it up, it's the story of mistaken identity. It begins the same way, but each story takes a different turn in the end. I guess it's like "choose your own adventure" ... right? I don't really know how to explain the plot without spoiling it fully, but I guess I'll just try and lure you into reading my story by telling you that one of the two adventures has him ending up dead. Exciting? Probably not, but maybe it might be. I'll try. Like, really hard.
(To jazz it up, though ... I don't know. Pictures? Funny fonts? I'm glad I don't really have to do this.)
The Kingdom of Loathing.
What really caught my eye about the game was that it was simple: well, the graphics. They look like stick figures I used to draw, or this one cartoon I remember from watching "Liquid Television" a couple of years back. That's beside the point.
The
Kingdom of Loathing, according to its
Wikipedia page, is a sort of satire on the MMORPGs. I guess you could call it that, because of the characters that are available to play ... like the Disco Bandit or the Sauceror. My character, which can be male or female, is the Accordion Thief. This is the description for my character choice:
The scourge of mariachis and polka bands, the Accordion Thieves have plied their malign craft since time out of mind. Their Moxie serves them well in both their adventures and their interactions with "the ladies.". In my case, it serves me well with the "fellas." Something like that. I already love this game because it's weird and it has bad looking stick figures.
I started playing maybe twenty or thirty minutes ago, but it looks like I've used up all my clicks, or in TKoL world, my "adventures." You get 40 a day, but it looks like they gave me some extra adventures, since when I looked my count, it said 80. And each character has three main attributes: muscle, moxie, and mysticallity. All of these can be gained through the different adventures you have, and the different things you can collect on these adventures. Also, before you can go to other levels, you have to complete some kind of "training" which occurs at Mt. Noob. While I thought this was fun at first, it got kind of repetitive, because I just found myself re-clicking everything to gain more attributes. It was funny and cute to read the first time, but then I just realized I was going in a circle. Maybe I'm not getting the game. But without the training, you can't click on anything else. Or, it just won't let you go anywhere else. When I tried to go elsewhere, it told me I couldn't, so that was frustrating. There is also something strange about being stuck at a place called Mt. Noob for a long period of time.
I looked around a little bit more and I found out that you can actually start playing against other people. I decided against this, mainly because I didn't feel like reading how and why, and I didn't feel like ruining my character, crazy_underwear, at this time. The whole game is really text-based, and while I think the little figures are really crappy and funny looking, when I think of a game, I don't think of "reading." I think that's why when you get Scrabble, the instructions that they give you are printed really, really small: it discourages people from reading it because it's a huge snooze. But, I think I'm smart enough on my good days, so I figure I'll eventually give in and read it, or figure it out on my own.
But seriously, I'm going to try and play again tomorrow when I get 40 more adventures because I want to see what else happens. You can't learn everything in one day with these things. I finally gave up on Urban Dead. That game just brought me a whole lot of misery.
Two (of six) characters you might want to be:
The Sealclubber
The Accordion Thief
king kong took a vacation and ended up on a shirt.
Since I'm a
Threadless member, I got an email notifying me that a t-shirt I voted for (which I said "I'd buy") was actually made into a tshirt. It's awesome! I'm probably going to get it, but ... maybe when there's another $10 sale. But still, I think it's a pretty cool shirt:
Click
here to see a better image.
Urban Dead isn't fun when you don't know how to play.
I played a little bit of Urban Dead at home, or at least tried to. And I got confused a little bit, mainly because I had just logged on, and I found out some dude had kept on killing me until I was dead! I logged off ... and I guess that really wasn't enough? I don't know much about the game to go hide under a tree or anything. Or maybe my internet connection was just SO SLOW to load the page that I was already shown logged in and some guy just decided to make me his victim. that really, really, really sucked. But I was also disappointed that I had no more action points, and just nothing. Being a Zombie in the game isn't exactly cool. And I had to wait for more, because they replenish. I guess it's kind of like my Zombie just took a nap. I was able to stand up just now (me getting killed happened yesterday). So maybe all is not lost.
And now ... I will try my hand at another game, possibly the ones that Marc suggested.
... to be continued.
final project woes.
I have the strangest feeling that I might need to come up with another project proposal. It always happens: I get an idea, blow it up out of proportion, and then I decide to abandon it. That's what happens to my "greatest" ideas: I get excited about it one minute, and the next, I feel like I'm totally over it. And I don't think that's good since this final project is coming close to being due ... isn't it?
And frankly, I have no idea what it is that I want to do anymore. I think I might actually just be going through a "phase" and I'll probably feel differently tomorrow. But this is the first time in a while I've actually sat down and thought about what it is I need, and what it is I need to do, and it's a little overwhelming for me. Maybe because I'm doing everything in one sitting.
If there IS anything that I need right now, it's a new computer, and I'm getting one pretty soon. I also got a coupon for $30 off, so I'm going to use that as soon as possible (you know how I love the deal-ie-os). Or at least before the coupon expires. I just hope that I'll be able to get my stuff together in time (I usually do). But, not to fear ... I'm working on more ideas. My mind feels a little more scrambled than it usually is. And, like I said ... I'll probably feel differently tomorrow. I need to just get up and walk away for a little bit and take a nap.
(p.s. Watching all the shows like Yacht Rock makes me want to do something like that too, by the way. It's so confusing. So many shows ... so little time.)
