Unterra Blog

At the end of October, my employer got bought. This is the third company that's bought us in the last decade or so. How did that affect me?

* My co-programmer, with whom I've worked since 1994 and who is by now about as good a friend as I could hope to have, got laid off. That was quite depressing, and as a bonus, it instantly doubled the work I had to do.

* We'd been with the last company for about five years, and had spent most of that time gradually integrating our systems with theirs. With no advance warning, we had to switch everything over to the new company. Another doubling (at least) of work. Only one system left to go, knock on wood!

* Then, a week after the announcement, there was the election. I'm trying to take the stoic John Wayne perspective: "I didn't vote for him, but he's my president, and I hope he does a good job." But it would have been nice to have at least a day or two to luxuriate in electoral angst without the job intruding.

Anyway, a month and a half later, things seem to be improving bit by bit. I realize that my catalog of woes is pretty paltry compared to many people's, but even so, Halloween kicked off a carnival of suckage this year, and I expect, nay DEMAND, a double-good Halloween next year to make up for it. That and two bucks will get me a cup of coffee.

Instapundit (http://www.pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/ 026985.php) links to a neat video game article:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/ 4290600.html

I'm not a Gears of War fan myself -- if you like it, that's great, but I played the first one for about an hour before deciding it wasn't my bag. Still, this is an interesting article, and the reader comments include a cryptic allusion to a threat I wasn't aware of.


2. Gears of War 2 programming our future soldiers
Website: http://www.ntopics.com
Great game program for the future fighting force needed to protect the USA. Gears of War 2 will provide soldiers the skills they will need in war. thanks for protecting us from tony

Despite its pessimistic outlook, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" is one of my favorite books. (It's also a quick read and you can find it free online, so give it a try: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/526 .)

Nifty trivia fact from the Internet (http://www.contactmusic.com/new/home.nsf/webpages/ aliensyoudidntknowx23x10x03):

The ship at the centre of the story was originally named the Snark, after the legendary creature being sought in Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark. Its next name was Leviathan - a reference to its enormous size - before Scott eventually settled on Nostromo, the title of a novel by Joseph Conrad, a quotation from whom opens the screenplay: "We live as we dream - alone."

That quote is from Heart of Darkness, and it also opens the Alien video game for the Commodore 64. The quote pretty much captures the spirit of the book, so don't read it during bouts of depression.

Over the years, I've thought about making a Heart of Darkness game in BYOND, because if you know me at all, you know I could hardly resist the idea of taking a brooding meditation on civilization and morality and turning it into a light-hearted online multiplayer game. (I actually have at least two projects created for this very purpose, both of which I haven't touched in years.)

I say all that to say this: Far Cry 2, which takes much of its inspiration from Heart of Darkness, is excellent. It requires patience -- there's lots of walking, driving, and boating all over the map, and unless you're playing on Easy like me, probably lots of failing as well. But the game's world is beautiful and convincing, and best of all, it's saved me about $400, since I now have no need to buy a PS3 to play Afrika.

Warning: keep multiple save files. I recommend at least five. The game isn't generally buggy, but there is at least one game-killing glitch; needless to say, I ran into it, and didn't begin to realize it was a game-killer until after I'd already overwritten all three of my clean saves. The glitch apparently arises when you save the game while you're supposed to be letting a captive out of a room five feet away. So before you save, ask yourself: am I on a mission where I have to free a captive five feet away? If the answer is yes, do that first.

P.S. I almost forgot -- this was meant to be a political post. So here you go: UFLL = COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP! APR IS FOR THE PEOPLE!

AN OPEN LETTER TO MADONNA
by Guy

I categorically deny your accusation that I am "emotionally retarded." As if! Whatever.

Also, try putting on a skirt, you little strumpet.

Introduced here: http://www.byond.com/developer/forum/?query=ID:667118

Make your own: http://ncomproductions.com/byond/index.html

Nicely done, Nadrew!