The influx of so called "reality" television is the main reason for my exodus from the world of watching TV regularly. There was a time when I enjoyed the bulk of Fox networks programing, until a few years ago when the 'reality' struck. I find the programing insulting and downright lazy. Please return to the quality written, directed, and acted programing of the past. I understand the low cost of reality program production helps the ad-fed bottom line, after all you don't need scripts or known actors; but please realize the impact it has on the overall opinion of your fine studio. It degrades your entire company, an entity comparable only to cheep liquor: only good for making you feel stupid. I feel I would be more likely not to change the channel, or skip ads using a TVIO device if the content of the shows you air were of a higher social caliber.

Thank you for your time, and here's looking to a better future for Fox TV!

-Buddy

Ok, now that I finally have some time to sit around and twiddle my thumbs for once, I've taken to learning a bit about that Torque engine I bought last year from Garage Games.

So far so good, I've gotten a basic bsp room, and a uvw mapped 3d (DTS) model into the game with relative ease. The next step is a character and something with animations. Before I know it, I may have a micro game on my hands!

I've ordered the Game Programmers Guide to Torque via borders/amazon thanks to the Sunnyvale PTA! (they gave out gift cards as a good will token, during the lunch they cooked for us last week, mmmmmmm fajitas....) It should be here friday!

Anyway, the path based camera tools are present, but boy are the deep and hand-coded. Looks like if I seriously want to use them for any kind of Machinima, I'm going to have to program a new camera manipulation interface. Sounds daunting, but I think I can pull it off if I hammer away at it bit by bit. My personal goal is to re-create Unreal's Matinee tool, nearly feature-for-feature into the Torque engine. Then, port it again into the Torque Shader Engine for maximum effect. Hey, if it's solid, maybe I can make a buck or two while I'm at it!

Ok! That's it, it's done, it's over, and now I'm going to sleep for a week.

I'm done working until August; ST is not work, it's a vacation I happen to get paid for.

Passports next week; I just hope my picture turns out alright, probably look like white collar prison stock no matter what. I hear I'll be getting those nifty new RFID implanted models. Mmmm...technology...

For whatever reason, pops doesn't believe me when I say I'm going to the far side of the globe, like I'm not young and crazy or something, I'll be sure to pick him up something really strange and make him open it up in public.

Mike and I did some prep work for the Machinima course last night before he made his way to Elpaso. In the week or so leading up to ST, we're going to be creating a series of Machinima shorts, breathing life into otherwise boring textbook materials that we really want to cover. This year, aside from the whole improv bit, one of our goals is to up the cinematic quality of your films, and to do so we need to teach some traditional film and animation techniques. We're not going as deep into it as the Digital Film course, but we are going to make you do story boards before your project is green-lit for production. The focus last year was loose, I mostly let everyone run wild and only acted as a producer in a few cases, this year is different, you have to get approvals for everything you want to present at the film festival.

Before anyone goes crazy and on wild tangents here, you’re still the directors, the writers, the actors, your story is yours alone, your style is yours to hone in and wield, we’re just going to be the mean producers and keep you on the road to a successful presentation. You can tell any story (within camp rules) in any way, with any game and tools available. We are here to help you plan, produce, and edit, and we’re not going to let you settle for anything less than your best.

Plus, now we really have some compition this year, not only are the flash punks gunning for us, we've got the Digital Filmmakers too, we cannot let them steal the show! VICTORY OR DEATH! VICTORY OR DEATH!

At the moment, I’m feeling really depressed. The fact is, I just sold my soul and SummerTech away for a bit of money, and it’s not even a lot of money. I mean, a lot more than I was making, but… I lose SummerTech! Fear not kiddies, this year is still a go go! Although I can say nothing of ’07, ’06 will rock!

All of this also got me thinking about running Dead on Que for fun and profit full time. We’ve got the skills and the connections to make it happen, we just lack the initial capital to begin. Hell, if we really wanted it, even that’s not a real problem. If I can get the ball rolling on DoQ and start churning out profits, even if it’s just enough to pay bills, I’d drop everything and go for it. Shit, why the hell not. Mike is swinging into town tonight; I’m going to put the pressure on full power to make this happen. I’m 23 and quickly running out of youth, you only live once and it’s time to collect.

Nothing like a monkey wrench in your perfect little system to turn everything around instantly. Time to do what I do best and run with it, giggling like a schoolgirl all the way.

In much lighter context: For anyone who just so happens to have a trip to Disney Land Tokyo planned for Labor Day weekend, we are organizing a group right now. As it stands it’s me and my pal Pepper, and like 10 Japanese college girls. Yes, this is for real. Yes, even you can come, but you have to get to the park on your own, and it's just for a day, after that you're on your own again. I'll keep the blog posted with specifics as I get them.

Here’s to a glorious future!