Another quiz taken from a link on Suanie's blog...
| You scored as Utilitarianism. Your life is guided by the principles of Utilitarianism: You seek the greatest good for the greatest number.
“The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.”
--Jeremy Bentham
“Whenever the general disposition of the people is such, that each individual regards those only of his interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his share of the general interest, in such a state of things, good government is impossible.”
--John Stuart Mill
More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...
Utilitarianism | | 85% | Existentialism | | 80% | Hedonism | | 75% | Justice (Fairness) | | 70% | Strong Egoism | | 40% | Nihilism | | 25% | Kantianism | | 25% | Apathy | | 15% | Divine Command | | 0% |
What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com |
I don't know what it means either... I'll go look it up.
Nic.
Designer Diaries...
...I've been asked (for months) to write a designer diary for System Rush to go on the web site that goes live very soon (
http://www.systemrush.com/ and
http://www.whitehatz.net/).
Now I've done these things before and always tried to make the (at times anyway) boring subject of games development interesting. However on past projects I've been on board since day one. On this game - I came in a little later.
So I spent ages trying to work out how to start the damn thing and eventually came up with this:
"4th of April 2005 – London, England.
Nic Cusworth sits at his desk musing on how to work the ‘word of the day’ – fastidious – into a bug report. An ominous shadow casts itself across his keyboard.
Rob: “Have you done that designer diary for Nokia yet?”
Nic: “Erm… I’ll do it now.”
It’s early April and the System Rush team are working with a fastidious eye for detail (wooohooo) to complete work on Ideaworks3D’s first original IP.
System Rush is a futuristic styled racing game for Nokia’s N-Gage, set in a underground world of rival hackers and corrupt multinationals. It’s built on the technology and expertise that’s been refined over the years of producing exceptional ports like Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk, and Colin McRae Rally to the N-Gage.
The SR team are industry ‘battle scared’, with most having 10+ years of experience in traditional console development.
That’s the background, so on with show.
I wasn’t working at Ideaworks during System Rush’s inception, but from what I hear – it all started a little something like this.
The Ideaworks Management team went on one of those ‘building stronger teams’, ‘lets all get lost in the wilderness’ management retreats in the late spring of 2004. I believe it was somewhere in Borneo, but then I’ve also heard that it might have been Greater Manchester – records are sketchy at best. But the story tells the same, regardless of locale.
Fraser, Thor, and Alex had been trekking for days, battling freak storms – killer bees – some guy trying to sell them bootleg DVDs – and an army of paparazzi on the trail of Brad and Jen, when they came across an opening. They checked the map, nothing was listed.
Fraser parted the thick jungle bush and stepped in.
There were a number of small tents, each painted a different primary color. Thor and Alex followed. The camp seemed deserted, so with darkness a matter of minutes away the three decided this would be a great place to spend the night. After all there was shelter – and a fire already lit.
Each of them chose a colored tent and curled up for some much needed rest before the next day’s journey.
We now understand that what they stumbled upon that night was a sacred site of the ‘z~l-o^’ tribe (who use a collection of tongue clicks and small finger cymbals to form their language, so that’s the best translation anyone has come up with).
These tents are known by the tribe as ‘:]{~’, or roughly translated - ‘dream tents’. It’s said that those who sleep in the tents will be delivered a dream from the spirit of the jungle that will stay with them for an eternity.
You can see where this is going – right?
In the morning they woke – well rested, but with the vivid spiritual projection of the jungle etched permanently in their mind. At first no one really talked about their nocturnal experience. But slowly over the course of the journey home – the three began to talk.
Each had experienced the same dream. A dream where they were speeding along futuristic racetracks, color themed by their various countries of origin. They all saw how the craft they were driving could drift and fly as well as grip to the track. They all chose a character named either Vert or Ikko. They all dreamt this at a resolution of 176x96 (which was incredibly convenient).
Finally Alex said what everyone was thinking.
Alex: “I know we’ve only done ports up until now, but we should make this game.”
And so it was agreed – Ideaworks3D would produce it’s first original IP, System Rush – based on shared dream, delivered by an earth spirit.
It should be noted that the said spirit does not have good legal representation and he can try and claim all he likes that we have infringed his intellectual copyright. But lets face it - what jury is going to believe a story like that?
And that’s how it happened. Or so I’ve been told. Remember I wasn’t actually here at the time, and I am quite gullible.
Next time I’ll talk about how we set about translating this germ of an idea into the fastest, most vibrant, some might even say ‘bestist’ racing game the N-Gage has ever seen.
Till then..."
So you have probably guessed - this won't be used ;) But I thought I'd post it here anyway...
Nic.
Yume No Chikara...
Honda's new TV ad is amazing... watch it here:
http://www.honda.co.uk/Nic.
Good Luck Soo...
My friend Soo is running the London Marathon today!!!
Nic.
ISPEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZ...
My friend Suanie is having 'issues' with her ISP. So I helped her doctor their new branded logo thing... which is here:
http://www.suanie.net/?postid=182But I prefer this one I did:
But she's too scared of being sued (or worse - have her internet cut off!!) - so I thought I'd post it here... you can apply it to pretty much any ISP as they all seem to suck.
Nic.
Micturition Syncope...
I had a somewhat distressing experience last night that naturally I feel I should share with the world. A little background first.
I'm on a diet. It's a special diet that I'll go into once I've finished it with exclusive before and after pictures. Now on this diet you have to drink AT LEAST 4 litres of water a day.
This is great on one hand because it makes you feel fantastic. However - what goes in - must come out.
Now for me - this mostly comes out at night. I feel somewhat like an 80 year old who has to visit the toilet at least 4 times a night. This is where the distressing experience comes in.
I woke up at approximately 3:30am with a cramp in my right foot big toe. Basically it felt like my body wanted to snap the big toe right off the foot. Very painful. When I get a cramp I usually try and stand up and walk around a bit to loosen up the muscle. So I slid out of bed and started to stretch the foot. All the time with a face like constipated camel.
It was about this time that my body told me it'd like to get rid of some of the excess fluid swishing around in my bladder. So off I hopped to the bathroom. Camel face sustained.
As I'm sure you all know, men stand to pee.
So there I am - half asleep, a toe that is committing suicide, swaying from my semi-comatose state, and peeing for England. The stream stops and suddenly I feel VERY VERY weird. I grab on to the wall. That's the last thing I remember.
I wake up thinking, “the bed's really uncomfortable”. “Why is the bed really uncomfortable?”
Hmmmm.... the bed is really flat - and erm... the bed is carpeted???
Oh shit - my head!
I don't know how long I was out - but I had fainted and bashed my head on the doorframe of the bathroom. I also grazed a knee on the carpet and bruised my arm.
I slowly clambered back into the bed.
What the fuck had just happened?? I began to get very cold - and started to sweat. I'm dieing - was me natural conclusion.
After a few minutes I decided to get up, get some water, try not to throw up, and take an aspirin just in case I was having a stroke or was about to have a heart attack. (erm... both are pretty unlikely given my age - weight - and current fitness level but what can I say... you do these things when you're as psycho as me).
I've never fainted before and to be honest, the whole situation freaked me out. I live alone and suddenly thoughts of - what if I had had a heart attack! crossed my mind. It made me feel pretty scared - and alone. (yes - I want a hug)
So what exactly had happened? I went to the doctors to find out.
The medical definition is Micturition Syncope... in crude English - Piss Fainting :P
Here's a definition:
Micturition syncope: The temporary loss of consciousness upon urinating. (Syncope is the temporary loss of consciousness or, in plain English,
fainting). The situations that trigger this reaction are diverse and include having blood drawn, straining while urinating (micturition syncope) or defecating or coughing or swallowing). The reaction also can be due to the emotional stress of fear or pain.
Under these conditions, people often become pale and feel nauseated, sweaty, and weak just before they lose consciousness.
Situational syncope is caused by a reflex of the involuntary nervous system called the vasovagal reaction. The vasovagal reaction leads the heart to slow down (bradycardia) and, at the same time, it leads the nerves to the blood vessels in the legs to permit those vessels to dilate (widen).
The result is that the heart puts out less blood, the blood pressure drops, and what blood is circulating tends to go into the legs rather than to the head. The brain is then deprived of oxygen, and the
fainting episode occurs.
The vasovagal reaction is also called a vasovagal attack. And situational syncope is also called vasovagal syncope, vasodepressor syncope, and Gower syndrome after Sir William Richard Gower (1845-1915), a famous English neurologist whose name is also associated with a sign, a solution, another syndrome, and a tract in the central nervous system.
---
So basically - because I was in great agony from the cramp while peeing - I passed out. This mainly happens in men because they pee standing up I should point out.
Now, I just feel like someone hit me with a golf club around the head. I'm planning on resting up for a few days.
There you have it. Another medical mystery exposed on Medullacorp. Next time something weird happens to my body - I'll be sure to let you know.
Nic.
Books, bits, and bobs...
...So I spend a lot of time on the train these days (3 hours a day to be more precise) and in the last 6 months of doing this epic journey every day I have fallen on a number of different ways to pass the time.
1: Stare out of the window and dream of crash landing on a deserted island populated by porn starlets.
2: Watch movies on my smart phone. I have an Orange SPV C500 for which you can get a pretty damn good divx player. Compress a movie right and you can fit it easily on 256meg memory card with extra space for a few WMA albums. I watched the entire season 1 of Dead Like me like this. The only reason I don't do this any more is I HATE the head phones that come with the SPV and I can't find any replacements.
3: Listen to mp3s on the SPV - see above.
4: Listen to mp3s on the Creative Labs Zen Xtra. I bought this just before Christmas. It's a 60 Gig mp3 player and it holds a fair chunk of my music. I also picked up some Sony 'ear bud' headphones which are a BER-ZILLION times better than those crappy SPV headphones, Creative Labs headphones - and for fucks sake - THOSE FUCKING IPOD HEAD PHONES!!! If you still use IPod headphones you should be ashamed. It just shows you know nothing about music. Change them and do yourself (and me) a favor.
5: Play games on my Nintendo DS. Regular readers will remember me picking up an import DS. Great fun - only I'm bored of all the games and I'm waiting for something new to come out.
6: Play GBA games on my DS. Fun for a while, but then Zelda Minipinibushiploppy flappy pissed me off.
7: Read a book.
Wait - yes... I said it... READ - A - BOOK.
I don't read. Well - I do and I don't. I don't read fiction. I find it really hard to follow cos of my dyslexia. Also I'm not a fan of written fiction in novel form - which is why I like screenplays. I get bored easily by the endless description and lifeless writing.
So what do I read? Well - I have a lot of books on screenwriting, learning Japanese, film making, Japanese manga that I can't actually read, architecture books, and a few biogs.
So I picked one up.
The first book I read was David Lee Roth's autobiography 'Crazy From The Heat'.
For those who don't know, Dave Lee Roth was the original singer in Van Halen and then left to make one amazing album in 'Eat em and Smile' - then a bunch of so so thing. The book is a frank re-count of various events in his life in no chronological order. I like the structure - it meant you were never sure what was coming next. Some of the chapters were spread over many pages - some were one page anecdotes. The guy has had a life, and he re-tells it without making you hate him for it. There is mention of drugs, sex, and the general excess of rock and roll life - but he assumes that you already 'get' all that and instead focuses on the moments that stand out.
The most amazing stuff in the book are the stories of the many travels he's taken throughout his life. Taking any downtime from music (and aborted film projects) to explore the world. No package holiday for Dave. It's true drop yourself in the middle of nowhere stuff.
Makes for an excellent read. I highly recommend it.
The book I'm currently reading is Lloyd Kaufman's ' All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned from the Toxic Avenger'
This is one funny as hell book. It's more autobiography than film studies tome - but there are some real gems hidden away in here for low budget film makers.
Tips like, shoot the sex scenes first - then if someone chickens out, you can fire them and you haven't wasted any film. There's also a great chapter on post-production.
I'm most of the way through this book and it's been one of the most entertaining books I've ever picked up. It's not for everyone, like Troma's movies, but it's honest and funny. What more can you ask.
Again - highly recommend this book to pretty much everyone except my Mum.
I have a few more books lined up. If they strike a chord, I'll let you know.
To close the first ever Medulla Corp book review blog I'd like to just say:
I WILL NEVER FUCKING READ THE DA VINCI CODE! OR ANY OTHER BOOK BY DAN BROWN!!
There was a period of time when EVERYONE on the train was reading this book. The normal paranoid silence of the commuter carriage was broken by morons reading the same book striking up puerile (did I use that word already???) conversation about that stupid book.
The only thing that pisses me off more that that, is when they had to pull those fucking white IPod headphones out of the swollen ears to start up the conversation in the first place :)
God I'm such a fascist.
Anyway - in other news. I was in HMV today I they have the new to DVD Russ Meyer films on sale for the bargain price of £9.99!!!
I picked up Vixen, Super Vixen, and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixen (my fav Russ film).
Regular readers will know of my fondness for Russ and his movies. I'll keep this bit short since I did a pretty huge blog about the great man after he died :( Go find that if you want the whole 'My life with Russ Meyer' experience.
Till next time...
Nic.
People often ask me if I have any words of advice for young people...
...following on from this mornings Tabasco incident - I would advise that after handling Tabasco you should not attempt to put in your contact lenses.
It generally leads to an expression a little like this...
...as I found out.
Nic.
Perfect Battlefield Conditions...
By that I mean wind speeds of ZERO MPH - because as cool as it is to see a full size mech stomping (okay sliding) round the streets of Japan (okay - outside some large industrial space) - I wouldn't wanna be sat up there on a gusty day.
Click the pic for a movie of it 'walking'.
Nic.
That's a one spicey meatball...
Grrrrrrr... got into work just now to find a bottle of Tabasco had exploded in my bag.
I blame the long-legged, huge shoed, twat of a business man sat across from me on the train who seemed to need the entire carrage to stretch his fucking legs and ended up kicking my bag the entire journey. If I see him tomorrow - I'll pour Tabasco on his fucking testicles.
Nic.
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
A CAT DRIVING A SKODA!!!
Okay - okay.. calm down...
Popworld gave me gold again this week by screening an interview with Bjork and a short clip from the 'Triumpth of a Heart' video. That's where the...
CAT DRIVING A SKODA
CAT DRIVING A SKODA
CAT DRIVING A SKODA
CAT DRIVING A SKODA
...is from.
Looks like I'm going to have to buy my third single in less than a month so I can get the video for this excellent track. I loved the album 'Medulla'... and it was so cool that she named it after my site!! Bless you Bjork!!!!
[okay I made that bit up] I grabbed the interview off Popworld... it's a WMV and you can grab it
HERE.
I wonder if Simon Amstell will marry me?? Erm....
Nic.
