![[CB]](/images/cblogo.png)
2012/05/02
Someone on reddit r/gamedev asked for game ideas. I figure ideas aren't worth much (execution is everything) so I thought I'd share some of my recent ideas.
1. Sims-like game where you start by winning the lottery. Fill your mansion with awesome stuff while you avoid IRS agents, vengeful exes, drug addiction, and bankruptcy.
2. A game set in the world of common nightmares. You're in class and naked, but forgot it was finals week. All your teeth fell out, and you should collect them to help wake up. When you finish the game you're falling through clouds at terminal velocity towards your bed, and the game instantly exits back to desktop on impact.
3. Cubicle Olympics. Office chair spinning, racing, jousting.
4. Ever bored in class and daydream what would happen if a bear broke through the window, or a ninja fell through the ceiling? Make that into a "boss rush" mode game where each level you have to defend your classmates against increasingly bizarre circumstances.
2012/04/08
This is how I feel right now.
2012/01/30
This weekend we went to The High in Atlanta to see the exhibit Picasso to Warhol. Excellent exhibit.
I was especially impressed by the cutouts of Henri Matisse. It really felt like they were influential in cartoon styles of the mid 1900s. One work reminded me specifically of the Charlie Brown specials, or the interstitials from Sesame Street.
Compare the whimsical style of the stars in both images. I haven't watched the Charlie Brown Christmas Special in years, yet my brain makes this connection. I was always fascinated by the scene where Charlie and Linus are tree shopping. The designs of the trees are so abstract that it always felt, even as a child, that the style was influenced by fine art.
2012/01/12
Congressman Rogers,
My name is Clint Bellanger. I'm an employee for Auburn University. I write library software that supports the cutting-edge research and innovation of our faculty and staff. I work around and create new copyrighted material every day.
I'm writing you today about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261.
In its current form, SOPA gives tremendous power to Copyright holders. Unfortunately it does this at the expense of Constitutional Rights and with a terrible burden to law-abiding business owners.
Any systems that can be used to thwart copyright enforcement are made illegal under the proposed act. This definition is too broad. It includes projects like TOR, developed by the U.S. Navy to grant anonymity to online users. Online anonymity is critical to the military, journalists, and law enforcement (not to mention ordinary citizens).
Under the proposed act, a judge can immediately block any website found guilty of hosting copyrighted material. Almost all web sites today are built on user-generated content. I'm not just talking about the massive sites like Facebook and YouTube; even small business owners and innovators must have user-driven web sites to be competitive. To abide by SOPA, websites would have to manually approve every user comment, every photo upload, every video clip posted, or risk being eliminated from the Web. US-based companies could not be competitive at that speed.
Compare this enforcement provision to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which currently provides a fair system for Copyright owners to issue takedown notices to web sites. This takedown system actually works for law-abiding websites. I understand that SOPA intends to target rogue websites, but it's not specific enough; SOPA in its current form would bring the US business infrastructure to a screeching halt.
The act would be ineffective against actual copyright infringement sites. Black-listing a website only bans one address. Rogue piracy sites are known for moving addresses often (cost to create a new address? About $10). So the main enforcement of SOPA is trivial for law-breakers, but a tremendous burden for legal business owners.
Please consider supporting amendments to this bill, or alternate bills that address these issues.
Thanks for your time,
Clint Bellanger
2011/06/29
If I should be short on words
And long on things to say
Could you crawl into my world
And take me worlds away
2011/05/17
Clouds hung hugely and oppressively
We didn't notice
We didn't care
2011/01/23
Most of what I read these days is 160 characters or fewer. Or, news articles and discussion threads. I'm trying to read more classics it 2011. If I'm going to tell a worthwhile story, I should be aware of what's already been told.
Saturday I picked up Childhood's End from Gnu's. It has interesting imagery and pleasantly fantastic themes (e.g. paranormal) among classic sci fi ones (first contact, transhumanism).
2010/07/24
I finally set up my professional website over at Bellanger Software.