Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dreamscape (or: More Like Nightmarescape)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

This one was tricky, since I don't usually remember my dreams, and here I am asked to keep a dream diary from which I will somehow divine the solution to whatever problem I am pondering. Bearing my sporadic recall of dreams even moments after awakening for the day, I figured I should pick something simple to dwell upon, such as "What is the secret to life, the universe, and everything?"

No, I kid, I kid. In reality I chose to reflect upon "What is the best way to convince myself to wake up at a more reasonable hour?" Which was directly related to dreaming from the onset.

So, I did as the exercise recommended, and set my alarm to half an hour earlier than usual so as to attempt to catch myself in a "dreaming period." This did absolutely nothing.

I kept it up for a few days; once I woke up briefly during the night due to some horrifying dream, but I rolled over and went back to sleep before I could remember to reach for the bit of paper on the ledge next to my bed to record it.

I actually only remembered one dream in any sort of detail, and even then I hadn't actually recorded it in the dream journal-- I was talking to a friend and he said something that randomly sparked a recall, so I described my dream to him and affirmed it in my memory.

I was being chased throughout some sort of park, but I wasn't the only one, as it was some sort of terrible sporting competition. I survived long enough to be brought to some room with seven others, four of us placed on the top level and four on the bottom (I was on the top). Some menacing fellows told us that only half could proceed, and one of them starting charging up some sort of lightning. I siddled slowly over until I was behind him, which for some reason he didn't notice, and he fried the other three people on the top level, looked confused, then fried an extra person on the bottom level.

... and then they took us to watch a 3D movie in an improbably gigantic movie theater, and I woke up before the commercials finished.

What that has to do with my query I'm not entirely certain. I suppose I could hire an assassin to hunt me for sport if I don't start waking up earlier and going to bed at a more reasonable hour? Man, my psyche is messed up.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

Dreams can be horrifying and there's probably a reason why I don't usually remember them.

A short note about my creative environment:

I decided to spend some time outside of my room, so I wrote this with my laptop perched on my lap, sitting on one of the comfortable couches in my house's living room. There's lots of natural sunlight filtering in through myriad windows, and my mom's watching some overdramatic soap opera on the television which was mildly distracting.

BrainBank: Clap On! Clap Off! Edition

It lets you turn things off from anywhere in the room! Witchcraft, I know. Nevermind that we now have motion-sensing lights and electronics that have a soft switch to turn on and off-- such as modern televisions-- and are thus completely incompatible with the Clapper. That jingle is just so catchy!

Seriously though, it's an excellent example of the importance of marketing your technology. The Clapper didn't work especially well, but Joseph Pedott marketed it with a catchy jingle and the rest was history. He didn't even invent the device, just marketed it-- kind of like the modest sensation that was the Chia Pet, another project of his the decade prior.

Compare this to something like Google Wave, which is actually shutting down now because people still don't know what the heck it does or why they should want it, and we see that proper marketing is very important indeed.

Though, to be fair, it's a lot easier to understand the Clapper.

BrainBank: Microscopes Provide Endless Horror Edition

Look at this harmless butterfly, sitting there prettily atop those flowers just chilling out. Surely this isn't actually a font of visceral horror.

Well, it might not be, but it definitely came from one. Scientists used a microscope to take super-magnified pictures of a variety of insect eggs, then colored the in post-processing. The butterfly egg is one of the most disturbing to view, though it's kind of fascinating in an alien way.

Apparently SpongeBob SquarePants had it right, butterflies are clearly monsters bent on the destruction of us all.

Chapter: Future Fruit (or: Past Vegetables)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

I don't actually have a business just yet, though I suppose you could consider me in the business of learning stuff about things. Or, in layman's terms, college.

One problem to investigate in my particular field is: "How can the college stay on the cutting edge of technology?"

The main decision regarding this is the school's budget.

The budget is influenced, so far as I know, mostly by the school's intake from students (the money Drexel makes is, as far as I know, funneled back into improving the school in some way); and the percentage of the budget allocated to my program is probably based on the recognition it achieves.

So, five scenarios based on these forces are:

1. Nothing changes. We get new computers every few years as they filter down from the graduate labs.

2. Drexel sees a sharp rise in the amount of new students and has a massive budget increase.

3. Computer technologies become so cheap that upgrades can happen much more frequently.

4. Moore's law fails and computer hardware stops improving by leaps and bounds, making upgrading less needful.

5. Drexel goes bankrupt

Obviously, the best opportunity lies in computer technologies becoming much cheaper; if only because theoretically this decrease would apply to the consumer market as well, and students such as myself could afford to augment their personal technologies and not be beholden to the school's.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This one was a little difficult to adapt, since it is clearly meant for an employee or owner of some actual business, but I think I found a pretty good analogue to apply it to.

A short note about my creative environment:

I actually went home for the weekend, so I wrote this at my desk at home, sitting in my nice well-lit room at my comfortable wooden desk next to my bed. It's a little over-warm in my room, but I have a glass of milk and a cookie and am thus content.

BrainBank: Na'vi Gation Edition

Using the power of science, a fly has been able to experience the unique thrill of its very own Avatar.

Essentially, a tiny fly was by some ingenious fashion hooked up to a machine that stimulated its senses and tricked it into thinking what it sees through that tube is its real surroundings-- and then furthermore tracks all of the motions it makes and transmits that to a robot with a little camera on top, which mimics the fly's movement.

Check out the video of the flyborg moving through a little obstacle course, it's pretty mind-boggling:

BrainBank: The Original 3D Edition

Before the gimmicky 3D movies of today, or the gimmicky 3D movies and theme park "rides" I vaguely remember from the 90's, there was the View-Master.

I had one of these when I was a little kid, a Lion King-themed one with a few little circular slide reels full of stills from the movie magically transformed into 3D images to boggle my brain for as long as my attention span allowed.

I never appreciated how long these have been around, though. Gizmodo's having a "Celebration of Invention" week, and one of the articles was a brief history on this children's toy. It was invented by a man named William Gruber in 1939, and the basic technology behind its stereoscopic imaging has not changed to the present day.

Also, you can apparently make your own little reels for these things, which is pretty awesome. I'm tempted to pick up a nice one off of eBay and play around with it.

BrainBank: Stay Puft Edition

Remember the horrifying Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbuster movies? Of course you do. I bet every time you saw him you thought 'man, I'd really like to rip chunks off of him and use them in my S'Mores.' ... no? Just me? Well good news, anyway: now you can!

ThinkGeek, glorious purveyors of nerdy, hilarious, and hilariously nerdy goods have gotten license to ship Stay Puft Quality Marshmallows, "gourmet" marshmallows that, get this, are filled with caffeine for some reason.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to go make S'Mores with Stay Puft marshmallows and then spend my all-night caffeine high watching Ghostbusters on repeat.

BrainBank: The Oatmeal Works From Home Edition

The Oatmeal, for those who don't know, is a hilarious webcomic about random things that often takes a PSA-like bent. Recently, The Oatmeal released a comic describing the many wonders and horrors of working from home, which speaks to my heart.

Apparently side effects include the complete degradation of any sort of social skills, but I for one am prepared to make the sacrifice of de-evolution in exchange for the ability to sleep in.

Enjoy: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

BrainBank: Sockification Edition

Watch that video. If you're not an incredibly mature individual, you're probably sniggering by now. Yes, that was intended to be a completely serious scientific demonstration of a sock-putting-on robot.

Ah, technology.

Pick a Name, Any Name

If I could change my name, I wouldn't. I like my name; well, to be specific, I like my nickname. I've been going by something other than my given name all of my life, technically, and I identify with it.

... yes, I know, boring. Deal widdit.

I Heart My Job

Here are ten things I love about Digital Media, in no particular order of importance:

1. I love showing a finished animation
2. I love having that 'eureka' moment with a difficult piece of code
3. I love just going crazy in Photoshop/Illustrator
4. I love working on a team with people I trust
5. I love making things move
6. I love making stories come to life
7. I love explaining what I do
8. I love sleeping in late every semester
9. I love when a professor cares about my success
10. I love when I start to feel comfortable with some new program

Superman Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Here are ten alternative uses for phone booths:

1. Low-income housing
2. Bathroom
3. Time-traveling device
4. Wardrobes
5. Video-conferencing booth
6. A recording soundbooth
7. A coffee shop
8. Crane game
9. Advertising
10. Sugar receptacle

Taking a Thought Walk

I took a walk to nowhere in particular recently, just wandering on and around Drexel's campus and eventually gravitating over to the greener pastures of the University of Pennsylvania.

As I walked, I thought about random things in my life, occasionally casting my gaze around the landscape. A few items of interest momentarily broke my reverie:

- a hefty gentlemen jogging past
My first thought is always 'well, that is a hefty gentlemen', but then after that I realize 'that is a hefty gentlemen getting far more exercise than I've gotten today', and then I feel bad.

- a discarded, half-full Coca-Cola bottle
Why would someone waste half of a Coca-cola bottle? I mean, I could understand wasting some sort of nasty energy drink or vitamin water, but that's just not cool. Ack, I nearly tripped while looking at the stupid bottle.

- a squirrel
It was just standing there on its hind legs, standing up as straight as humanly possible, staring very intently off into space. Normally squirrels are at least looking at something, like a tree or a blade of grass or what have you, but this one was just smack-daub in the middle of the walkway outside of Nesbitt staring up into space.

- a butterfly
I saw a flutter out of the corner of my eye, and then two elderly ladies walking past commented "Hey, a butterfly." And lo, it was so. I didn't get a very good luck at it before it fluttered away, but there are so few butterflies in Philly, from what I've seen, that it still merits a mention.

- a sports car
It was a really cool car, and I had nothing better to do but stare at cars as I was waiting for the light to turn. The driver was going way too fast.

That's about everything of interest that I noted down. There's something intrinsically beautiful about a butterfly, despite it basically just being a more brightly-colored version of a moth (which gets no love), so I could definitely catch my in-story character's attention with a butterfly.

Which could be a trap! Dun-dun-duuuun.

BrainBank Analysis

Looking back through all of my BrainBank entries, I can discern myriad categories into which the focus of my internet could lay. There are three recurring themes, however, that dog all of my submissions.

Visual Palette

Emotional Tone

Technology as Art

From these three themes, I can further narrow things down to several specific components that pop up repeatedly.

Visual Palette
Cartoonish hues
Neon colors
Minimalism

Emotional Tone
Cute/silly
Disturbing
Epic

Technology as Art
Photographs
Robotics
Re-purposing technologies

As I listed these off, none of them really rang true in regard to my writing project-- until the very last entry. I'm always enamored of the creative uses people find for technologies; even if I'm writing a fantasy story, there are still plenty of instances where this creativity could apply. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," or something such as that-- so I should endeavor to find some creative uses for any magic or technology that has crept into my setting.

Hmm...

Chapter Twelve: Idea Grid (or: Oh Man, We're Thinking Inside The Grid Now)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

An idea grid is a simple table that allows one to very broadly profile where the major players in a certain industry fall in regard to price and the method in which they appeal to consumers.

For my idea grid, I took a look at where the offerings from six major console manufacturers past and present fall. I discovered that their gaming products mostly fall into the category of high-cost devices that appeal to the hardcore gamer; Nintendo has the position of low-cost devices that appeal to casual gamers locked up.

However, the only company that produced a low-cost gaming machine that appealed to the hardcore gamer was Sega-- and that product, the Dreamcast, has long since fallen out of the public eye, after an unsuccessful run that bankrupted Sega's console division.

Based on the current market state, the only product that has a chance of catching any attention is a console that falls into that category. If I were to attempt to break into the console market, I would follow many of the same strategies as Sega used for the Dreamcast, including the use of off-the-shelf components to cut down on costs and increase the ease with which developers could create for the platform.

The major issue with this approach is that a device similar to a personal computer in its architecture would suffer the same piracy rates as the Dreamcast and the modern PC. Thus, my main focus would be to craft a similar level of protection to Sony's current PlayStation 3 without obfuscating the hardware.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This is a much more technical exercise than most of the Thinkertoys, but I think it's a pretty well-designed one. It's left open enough to still allow for some level of creativity in interpreting the results, while the use of a grid focuses and streamlines comparisons to existing companies' products.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this in my dorm's common room, sitting in a pretty comfortable chair across from a large television showing SpongeBob. There was some light in the room, but even though the common room has gigantic windows lining one side of it there wasn't much sunlight due to the overcast day. It is the common room, so occasionally people wandered out, but for the most part I was alone.

BrainBank: Alas, Poor Pinball! I Knew Him Edition

An article on Gizmodo just caught my eye. It's not really a commentary on anything in particular; basically, the author just enthuses about his passion for a pinball iPhone app. Well, he does get into the interesting Japanese concept of "michi," which is the belief that everyone should have at least one thing that they're constantly striving at.

It caught my eye just because I love regular old pinball machines, and it makes me sad that they've almost completely disappeared from the American landscape. Granted, we have a pinball machine at my home and I haven't played it in some time; but I do like the concept of an all-mechanical form of entertainment.

Video pinball, really, is as far removed from real pinball as it's possible to be. All-digital, completely portable, and with absolutely no tactile feedback (you can't even control how hard the flippers strike the ball on most digital conversions), I could never really get into videogame pinbal. Still, it was an interesting article, and at least I know that pinball machines and the rest of the arcade genre are still quite alive in Japan.

BrainBank: Alas, Poor Tchaikowsky! I Knew Him Edition

Here's your dose of random trivia for the day. Apparently a pianist named Andre Tchaikosky donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company some few decades ago, desiring to appear as skull of Yorick in Hamlet.

The actors actually practiced with Tchaikosky's skull, although the actors were as a whole too uneasy to use it in any actual production.

The actor playing the gravedigger was all for it, though, which was pretty cool.

BrainBank: Lookit Its Widdle Feet Edition

The internet seems determined to heap adorable robots on me this week. This one is actually designed for exactly that purpose, but its done pretty darn cleverly.

You're looking at a projector/video camera unit. One "eye" is the camera lens, and the other is the actual projector; the cheerful little smile is the microphone's sound intake port, and the little stabilizing feet also serve as covers for the external connections.

Like everything else good in the world this is just a concept, but it's on my list of things that need to make it to market. I want these things in my college classrooms, forget the ugly Dell boxes.

BrainBank: This Insectobot Is Actually Kind of Cute Edition

Phasma is a tiny robot built for the express purpose of running around. Specifically, its design allows to run in the same fashion as an insect, always having at least three of its legs on the ground in order to keep stable, and obviously employing an insectoid gait.

While it might walk like a cockroach, though, I think they actually managed to make the little Kinex-looking guy look cute. Certainly a far-cry from his robotic descendants that will burrow into peoples' brains and take them over during the inevitable robot uprising.

BrainBank: Sloooowwwww-Mooooottiiiooon Edition

Slow motion makes everything better, it's official. This is an extremely beautiful video shot with a Photron SA 1.1, featuring a wide range of objects facing destruction, as well as some more innocuous activities like skateboarding, liquid spilling, and in hilarious case a man having paint shot at his face.

The video uses some creative speed tricks; beyond just the simple go slow-mo then go fast-mo trick that most modern action movies seem to be employing. Check it out! It's mesmerizing.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Three B's (or: I Can't Think of a Good Acronym That Involves Three B's)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

I was thirsty today, as I am many days, and there was a soda can sitting near me. Unfortunately it wasn't my soda can, so I couldn't drink it, and instead found myself studying it intently. Perhaps I was projecting my discontent upon the unfortunate can, but I found myself thinking that there should be some way to improve on this design. Forget that crappy New Coke-- how about a New Coke Can?

Since this is a weighty and ponderous task, I've decided to take the incubation approach to solving this conundrum. I've identified my challenge, and looked into the history of the humble soda can. The methodology of the opening mechanism has changed a bit over the years, to become safer to use and easier to open, but the basic design of the can has remained largely unchanged.

So, I've instructed my brain to ruminate upon the subject. I'm now going to leave it alone for awhile, and see how long until my brain sparks an idea. I've set up a reminder for a week from now, just to galvanize myself in case I totally forget. Let's see what happens!

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

Well, this exercise is much less immediate than other exercises; really, it's not much of an exercise at all, it's basically just 'do that thing where you randomly think of things' that's usually deemed too unreliable for a corporate environment.

A short note about my creative environment:

I typed this up while sitting in the Digital Media lab, after classes had let out for the night. It's dead silent save for the hum of overworked computers, and a couple of other digital media people sitting nearby occasionally murmuring. The room is pretty bright, but stuffy and uncomfortable.

BrainBank: Now That's What I Call The Royal Treatment Edition

Man, I can't get enough of this guy. This is the same artist that painted the Mona Lisa in Microsoft Paint, branching out into a more traditional medium. And by that of course I mean "painting" Elvis "The King" Presley on black velvet using nothing but Cheetos dust. The result is actually really, really awesome looking, and like all of his videos it's time-lapsed so you can see Elvis actually starting to take shape with the snackfood.

The artist's name is Jason Baalman. Here, check out his eBay site: http://stores.ebay.com/Eclectic-Asylum-Gallery

BrainBank: Microsoft Paint the Mona Lisa Edition

It always amazes me when artists (traditional or otherwise) create something beautiful using a medium that clearly was not meant for the task. Sometimes that means taking a time-lapse video of an ant colony in a scanner, and sometimes that means making a darn good reproduction of the Mona Lisa using... Microsoft Paint.

Yes, Microsoft Paint, that program some of us used to use to have stick figure animation wars with our friends back in grade school.

... what? Stick figure wars are awesome, try it some time.

Force BrainBank Combos

Entry 1:

Chipmunk Death Star

Entry 2:

Ants in a Scanner

Connection:

Cyborg chipmunks

----------------

Entry 1:

Invisibility cloak

Entry 2:

Robot pancake-flipper

Connection:

Robot ninja chefs

----------------

Connection between Cyborg chipmunks and Robot ninja chefs

An awesome Alvin and the Chipmunks steampunk reimagining

Where is this going?

He bet his life and walked away with only half.

Combining Random Ideas

My overarching project is a fantasy Choose Your Own Adventure called "Crystal Promise." So two relevant terms are "adventure" and "promise".

Adventure
1. Epic
2. Heroes
3. Monsters
4. Trials
5. Treasure
6. Journey
7. Death
8. Magic
9. Temptation
10. Crossroad

Promise
1. Trust
2. Ring
3. Alliance
4. Heartbreak
5. Church
6. Love
7. Hope
8. Inspiration
9. Potential
10. Naiveté

Combinations

Crossroad and Naiveté
All roads look the same to an infrequent traveler. A crossroad that always leads to the same location, though the path and the experience are very different.

Death and Ring
If we take the idea of the Circle of Life, breaking that circle is fatal; shattering a cracked metal ring causes a wide ripple of unforeseen consequences.

Treasure and Heartbreak
In order to take up some weapon or power steeped in tragedy, the hero must sacrifice a future love

Monsters and Hope
The true villains of the tale wear fair faces and lead the hero to ruin under the guise of helpfulness.

Temptation and Church
A sinful decision made in a holy place ruins a beautiful relic.

JumpStart: What Day is it?

I'm now going to update the names of the days of the week. Why? Because.

My two concepts are: Comic book heroes and breakfast items

Sunday - Captainameridonutday
Monday - Hawkmanbranday
Tuesday - Spiderpigday
Wednesday - Flashmilkday
Thursday - Greeneggsandhamday
Friday - Battoastday
Saturday - Staticshockwaffleday

Delicious and inspiring.

BrainBank: What Pigeons What Edition

Apparently pigeons have officially been declared a plague in Barcelona. To this end, the city has decided to capture 25% of the pigeon population. They're doing this with... well... nets. Just throwing giant nets over legions of rats with wings, which go into a horrifying frenzy when entrapped.

Man.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: MurderBoard (or: There's a Text File On My Computer That Says 'Murder Ideas' Now)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

I met with two of my good friends in the Digital Media Replay Lab in order to get some feedback on my Choose Your Own Adventure story. I took them through a sample play-through, and this is what they recommended to me:

- Need more emotional connection

- Really descriptive writing at intro-- try really descriptive writing at death / victory

- Develop each individual story as opposed to making the branches really short

- Decisions give you a few more decisions

- Parallel possibilities, both get you to the same place

- Easier at beginning, harder as it goes; don't allow for death until later

- Controlled RPG-esque tree

Those are the notes I jotted down. I like the suggestions, and I'm definitely going to try to implement all of them.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

The best way to test the mettle of your creative ideas is deliver a prototype to an actual audience, and get their feedback. On a small scale, the feedback of family or friends is valuable, so long as they feel no compulsion to spare your feelings.

A short note about my creative environment:

We described our ideas to each other while sitting in the chairs in the Replay Lab, which are pretty comfortable. The room was air-conditioned, but a little stuffy from the sheer amount of unused things in there gathering dust. Also, Christian Hahn was there working on something, but he didn't say much.

Chapter Eleven: Idea Box (or: That's The Most Boring Chapter Title So Far)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

I may have mentioned that my overarching goal for the Concept Design class I'm currently enrolled in is to create an interesting Choose Your Own Adventure story. The most recent class, I discussed with the teacher the possibility of delivering my story via Flash as opposed to a traditional bound book. Therefore, I'm going to run through the Idea Box brainstorming challenge about how I could construct this Flash framework.

So my challenge is: "How could I portray a Choose Your Own Adventure using Flash?"

Parameters and Variations

User Input
__________

Keyboard
Mouse
Webcam

----------------

Heads-Up Display
________________

Main text indicator
Dice-roller window
Cursor indicator

----------------

Art Style
_________

Faded book lying in the sand
Amethyst stone next to book
Sparkling particle effect

----------------

Features
________

Fade-in text
Page turn animations
Dice-rolling code

I definitely don't have time to implement it, but I think it would be awesome if I could get some sort of webcam integration going, wherein waving your hand (possibly while holding some starkly-colored object or whatever other workaround is needed) turns a page of the book or sets the dice rolling.

I probably need a more realistic art style, too, which I'm not sure I can pull off; I may look into something cell-shaded so I can have a simpler art style that still looks good.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This is a pretty simple one as far as Thinkertoys goes, and doesn't seem to be particular inspired. Just list components intrinsic to your idea, then a few possible variations on those components; since you're supposed to discard any components that aren't entirely necessary, the variations on what's left should all work well together no matter what.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this down in the Digital Media open lab at about eight-thirty in the evening. It's the DIGM labs, so even though it's still light outside there's no way I could tell. I'm sitting in a corner of the lab, so it isn't very well-lit. It's a comfortable temperature inside, with the air conditioning whirring away continually in the background. The only sounds are the clacking of keys from other people using the computers.

BrainBank: The Pylons Are People Edition

This is a neat concept, submitted for a design competition to redesign power pylons in Iceland. Basically, these humanoid pylons, in addition to looking majestic, could be posed a number of different ways depending on the position needed.

I like the idea of something necessary but disruptive to the aesthetic of a beautiful environment being transformed to accommodate both practical and design sensibilities.

BrainBank: Indoor Olympic Waterparks Are Pretty Slick Edition

I think I gave everything away in the title of this one, but just to elucidate, what you're looking at is the conversion of Beijing's Olympic stadium, the Water Cube, into a full-on water park.

I actually think this repurposing is a really great idea, that more countries should consider. The lavish Olympic stadiums created for each event tend to languish and silently weep money after said Olympics, and are on the whole beautiful pieces of architectural engineering. It only makes sense to find a new use for the discarded megalithic buildings, and introduce hundreds and thousands of people that would otherwise never have a forum to behold their beauty.

Also, indoor water parks are awesome.

Chapter Thirty: Dali's Technique (or: It's All In The Wrist)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

1. Think about your challenge

I'm envisioning a character design for a Death-like deity.

2. Totally relax your body

I sink into the comfortable armchair, holding a die in either hand and draping my arms over the armrests.

3. Quiet your mind

The TV drones on in the background. I can hear the scratching of my friend's pencil on paper. His laptop fan is whirring gently near my chair. I focus on the soft whirring noise.

4. Quiet your eyes.

I close my eyes, inclining my head so that my face points at the blank white ceiling. It takes a couple of minutes for the muscles of my eyes to relax; since I'm trying to relax, I keep moving my eyes behind my lids accidentally.

5. Record your experiences immediately after they occur.

Eventually, I am sufficiently relaxed (and/or sleepy) for my hands to unclench, the dice clattering to the floor. One lands on '1', the other '2.' I was contemplating a figure with a face swathed in scarves and eyes hidden in shadow.

6. Look for the associative link.

The association between fortune and fate is traditional, and everyone's overarching fate is to die. I've heard many stories that involve challenging death to a game such as chess, to win the right to continue to live. I like the idea of a gambling Death, an inefficient Death that agrees to simple games of chance.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

I liked this exercise, if only because it was much less ridiculous in principle than a lot of the exercises involving relaxation techniques and visualization. There was no explicit guiding principle for this one, so I got to make connections on my own.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this in the living room of my friend's apartment late at night, sitting in a cushioned armchair across from an ancient television. It's mostly dark in the room, though there are lights on in the kitchenette. The sky outside is dark, though the room overlooks Drexel's sporting field and its always-on bright white lights.

BrainBank: The Most Useful Machine Edition

That's actually what this winner of an invention is called. What does it do? Well, using some incredibly complex robotics it automates the laborious process of clicking the 'change channel' button, at a rate of once per minute.

So, if your muscles have atrophied to the point where you can't even expend the effort on a remote control, this is the gizmo for you!

On a side note, I have one those oversized TV remotes at home. They're pretty fun to use.

BrainBank: Mobile Gaming is All The Rage Edition

It's astonishing to me how aggressively we manage to miniaturize our technology. I've seen tons of hackers demonstrating portable versions of older consoles that they've hacked together, ranging from mobile Sega Genesis's (Genisi?) to portable N64's. Now, however, we have such excellent mobile chips that a game of that quality, which wouldn't look out of place on the original Xbox, can fit on phones that are rapidly approaching atom-thinness.

That being said, I still can't think of any situation where I'd want to play a game on a platform that doesn't have any buttons.

BrainBank: Pushing All The Right Buttons Edition

Well, it's about time. Smartphones are more than capable of playing some pretty advanced games by now, yet not-a-one has had an appropriate gaming keypad attached to it. In fact, most smartphones running an operating system such as Android or iOS, that is capable of playing these advanced games, don't have any keyboard at all.

Sony Ericsson is now apparently looking to revamp the Android gaming market, with the introduction of phones meant from the get-go to be suitable for gaming, presumably with high-resolution screens and full slide-out game pads; Engadget made a simple mockup of what that might look like, which seems fine to me.

BrainBank: This Death Star's Fatal Flaw is Almonds Edition

Hilariously enough, this is actually not a Photoshop. Well, Vader sitting on this chipmunk, that is; there was a bit of doctoring to remove the strings from Vader and add an intimidating glow to his lightsaber.

Apparently, Billy the Chipmunk is just so enamored with almonds that he completely failed to notice the puppet being carefully lowered onto his back.

The photographer, Chris McVeigh, has done a lot of interesting photographs. One of these days I will actually get a nice camera and follow suit.

Something Beautiful About...

An earplug?

...

Okay. Its minty color is soothing and puts me in mind of a comfortable hospital setting. Since that was just about the only aesthetic design decision possible, beyond choosing a simple, efficient and non-threatening rounded conical shape, the manufacturers clearly put a great deal of thought and foresight into the exact shade of their product.

In order to make it more inspiring, they could make it glow in the dark. That would be awesome.

Anti-Failure

Lady Luck is a cruel mistress; the best way to beat her at her game is not to play.

It's usually not a good thing in life to trust your fate entirely to luck. We strive to amass skill precisely so we aren't limited to luck, which is a fickle friend and often turns against us.

While the rewards can be great (winning the lottery would be a good example), the failures are too statistically numerous to ignore.

Whenever possible it would be better to use a guided system, such as numerically distributing stats from a chart in this instance. With those more consistent results, it comes down to the skill of the individual, which is something we wish could happen more often in life.

Remembering Failure

I failed at rolling stats for my Dungeons and Dragons character, the first time out of the gate. It was a tragic failure, made all the more poignant as the first occasion that I used my first set of Nerd Dice.

I felt sad and diminished, as if the gods were frowning upon me before I even began my question.

Luckily, I did so incredibly poorly that by the rules I actually got to roll again, so all's well that ends well.

JumpStart: Rust in Peace

Here's the tombstone message that will be inscribed onto my "Fear of Failure's" tombstone, apparently:

Here lies my fear
But don't shed a tear
'twas pushed to the rear
For the sake of my cheer

BrainBank: So Easy a Monkey Could Use It Edition

Are gorillas monkeys, or apes? I don't remember. Anyway!

This is no Photoshop; some kid at the San Francisco zoo dropped his DSi XL into the gorilla enclosure, where it was picked up by a curious gorilla.

He's actually holding it the right way! Didn't actually play it, but he did play -with- it, so I think that's close enough. Also, I like how the little gorilla wants to play, but the adult says "no videogames for you."

The fortunate boy actually got his DS back, when a zoo worker traded the gorilla an apple for the (slightly slobber-covered and scratched) DSi XL.

Chapter Ten: Tug-of-War (or: A Virus Has Been Detected)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

In homage to my friend and his virus-ridden laptop, today I'm going to vet the following challenge with the Tug-of-War brainstorming method: "How can I protect my computer from viruses?"

Best Case Scenario: My computer runs smoothly
Worst Case Scenario: My computer becomes riddled with viruses

Conditions:

Operating system
Antivirus software
Web browser
Popup blocker / adblocker

"Push" Conditions:

OSX, Windows 7, or Linux
Non-McAfee Antivirus
Firefox or Google Chrome
Adblock Plus

"Pull" Conditions:

Not knowing how to use Windows
McAfee Antivirus
Internet Explorer
What's a pop-up blocker?

Well that was easy.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

I don't think I picked an optimal challenge for this, since the conditions aren't very black and white, so basically all four conditions can be push or pull conditions and you have to really drill down into them to find differences.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this during a club meeting, sitting in a semi-comfortable computer chair with my laptop's charge rapidly dwindling. There was a presentation being given on gender-inclusive gaming, which I occasionally looked away from my brainstorming to contribute to. The room was well-lit and full of raucous nerds.

BrainBank: Rock 'em Sock 'em Edition

The video's kind of lame, but the concept is awesome: electronic Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. I'm sure you're all old enough to remember the Rock 'em Sock 'em toys, but if not, allow me to elucidate. Basically, each player controls a plastic robot and mashes some sort of button to try to punch out the other robot.

In this revamp of the classic, built for Texas Instruments' Co-op Design Challenge, these enterprising individuals use accelerometer-equipped watches to control the robots. Basically, leaning their arms forward moves the robots forward, while a punch (occasionally) causes the robot to jab. It's pretty clunky in execution, but I like the concept.

We just need to do this with actual gigantic robots, and we'll have the makings of every Giant Robot Anime to ever come out of Japan.

Bridge Building

It's pretty late at night, but I will try to keep the items in my "reserve tank" intelligible.

At present, this is what I have nailed down:

I've thought about doing something else just because I'm so invested in the genre already, but I can't really find any other genre I enjoy quite so much, so fantasy it is.

I'm thinking of the old standby of amnesia, so I can start off in the middle of the story and branch back in several directions, as opposed to a linear non-linear story, if that makes any sense.

I'm flip-flopping on including a battle system, and how to implement that.

Since I'm not specifically aiming this at little kids I'm going to feel free to be a little more graphic in my descriptions of thing.

I want to have a story that is more modern in its sensibilities, in that instead of a painful 'Game Over' where you have to start from the beginning, your death flows naturally into the story and you can continue; or you lose, but don't necessarily die. Let's be honest: everyone who's ever read a Choose Your Own just flipped back to the page before that and made a different choice

Update:

Mulling it over while tossing and turning before sleep, and again while showering, eating breakfast, etc. I pretty much agree with the reserve tank stuff. I'm feeling a little better about employing the cliche of amnesia-- cliches are cliches because they're incredibly useful, the trick is just using them properly and not abusing them.

I was going to go with a completely decision-based combat system (Turn to page 57 to try to trip the gremlin!), but I've been researching a lot of Dungeons and Dragons related stuff so I may feel confident enough to put some sort of dice-based system in.

BrainBank: Empty Streets Edition

An enterprising graduate student named Arturo Flores with extremely good job prospects at Google has developed an algorithm to completely remove people from Google Street View. This is a step beyond Google's current algorithms which blur license plates and faces, and would do a lot to address privacy concerns.

Of course, the technology isn't completely perfect, as there's a definite ghostly silhouette left behind. It also isn't very good at hiding anyone moving in the same direction as Google's camera, or dealing with crowds. Still, it seems like a really promising beginning, and I hope Google gives this guy a ring.

With all those pesky people out of the way, the life of the architectural voyeur will be easier than ever!

BrainBank: Memento Mori Edition

Here's something new for you all: a post about music. I didn't listen to music at all until my friend convinced me to buy an iPod my senior year of high school, so I would deem my musical tastes immature at best. That being said, occasionally a band does catch my ear.

I'm not very good at actually picking up the lyrics until I've had a good few listen-throughs of a song, but I definitely tend to judge bands by their vocalists. I really like the sound of the band Flyleaf's vocalist, so I was pretty psyched to find out that the Texan band released a second album.

Since I'm bad at picking up on lyrics, I totally didn't realize that Flyleaf is apparently a Christian rock band until I looked them up one day; but don't let that deter you. Jesus sidles into the songs occasionally, but he's pretty chill about it.

Check it out on Amazon (if you buy it, I get some money apparently, which is awesome):

Memento Mori (Amazon MP3 Exclusive Deluxe Version)

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Shadow (or: Look Out, It's the Dark Side of the Force)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Good news, everyone! Today I'm going to find my spirit animal-- I mean, "invoke my personal mentor." This is some sort of weird self-affirmation hypnotism mumbo-jumbo, but in this case you get your own person Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Step One: Let go of your tension

Well, I'm advised here to "be passive and allow relaxation to occur at its own pace," so I'm going to do what I normally do and let relaxation creep up on me and catch me unawares.

Step Two: Imagine that your body is surrounded with soft, glowing white light

I can feel my Inner Jesus surging to the fore. Seriously though.... alright, I'll try it, I guess. I am now imagining myself surrounded with soft, glowing white light.

Step Three: Now imagine that you are walking into a favorite place

I step into my house, making sure to keep to the throw rug by the door so I don't track dirt in. I take off my shoes, and look up, taking in the high ceiling above the entrance and the large wooden bookshelves too high up to reach without a ladder. There's probably a lemon scent in the air from cleaning supplies. The hardwood floors are slippery beneath my socks.

Luckily, I have my aura of glowing white light to protect me if I slip.

Step Four: Picture your spiritual mentor walking toward you

I picture a short, bearded gentlemen walking toward me, and am vaguely creeped out by this guy I don't recognize sliding through my house.

Upon conversing with him, though, he seems to be a pretty okay guy. He may be a time-traveling version of me from the future, though, because otherwise I would not feel so familiar with some unknown dude in my house.

Step Five: Bring the conversation to a close

I exchange cell phone numbers, then click my heels three times and think "There's no place like home." And lo! I'm sitting in my chair once more in front of my computer.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

I couldn't really take this exercise seriously, I admit. It was just too silly, reading it aloud to myself. Maybe if I was used to meditation and stuff, but I couldn't really put my heart into it.

A short note about my creative environment:

In order to make some reasonable effort to promote a meditation-friendly environment I typed this up sitting in a comfortable armchair in the Creese Student Center. It's pretty dark, since the Drexel store is shut down for the day, and there's no one around so it's quiet enough. I can hear the sounds of the city outside, faintly.

BrainBank: Apple Peel Edition

That thing on the left is the Apple Peel 520. Why is it called the Apple Peel 520? Because it's an accessory for an Apple product, and you can... peel... apples, I guess? Man, I have no idea what goes through the Chinese people's minds.

The actual product itself is pretty awesome, though. Essentially, it allows you to use your iPod Touch (any generation) as a full-fledged iPhone, with the ability to make and receive calls and SMS messages.

It's pretty buggy, but the only review out is about a prototype version, so presumably some of the issues will be addressed. I totally dig the concept of modular phones, though, so something that makes my media device into a phone with a minimum of expense (about $57) seems pretty awesome to me.

BrainBank: You Can't Handle the Internet Edition

File this under "oh snap": Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of RIM (the company that makes those BlackBerry things you may have heard of) delivered quite the burn in response to the issue of companies banning BlackBerrys. "[If] they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off."

Mr. Lazaridis notes that "a lot of these people don't have Ph.Ds, and they don't have a degree in computer science." Lacking these, you can't understand the concept of this Internet thing and you're clearly not qualified to ban an internet-viewing product, Various Countries.

For serious, though, he's basically saying that the issue is not about BlackBerrys but about the Internet in general; these countries want to monitor BlackBerry services, and that's akin to monitoring the Internet. Which as certain countries have demonstrated (cough China cough, cough Australia cough) is not cool.

Protecting your business interests or not, rock on, Mike Lazaridis.

BrainBank: Why Won't It Die Edition

Why do people still buy games in boxes? Free the games from their boxlike coffins! Okay, so maybe you can't trade them back in, but I'll take the ridiculous convenience of digital purchases over padding Gamestop's profit margins any day.

80-90% of games are still bought on disc, according to some sort of survey with some sort of level of credibility.

I'm going to choose to believe these numbers are wildly inaccurate, though, because Steam deserves at least 30%.

Five Words Bridge

ENVIRONMENT
has nature up in it

SUN
major facet of nature

SCARF
protects eyes from sun, ears from sound

BUCKET
makes a racket when you bang it

GONG
exists to make a racket when you bang it

Mantra

The best way to go wrong is to think I'm always right.

60+ Uses for a Wooden Stool In 5 Minutes

1. Beating stick
2. Sitting
3. Confiding in
4. Practice mind-control on
5. Set it on fire and watch it burn
6. Hiding place for the very tiny
7. Bed
8. A doorstop
9. Dancing partner
10. Fencing dummy
11. Decoration
12. Block the door
13. Plug a leak
14. Use as part of a flying machine
15. Artistic model
16. Practicing with laser vision
17. Toothpicks
18. Booby-traps
19. Slay a vampire
20-60. Ran out of time :(

Turn Bad Habits Into Good Habits

A bad habit that I, like many students, suffer from is an ability to eat a proper breakfast in the morning. A combination of waking up late and an unwillingness to spend the effort to actually cook something in the morning, while simultaneously being aware that something like yogurt or cereal won't fill me up at all.

I can't pretend that I could suddenly just start eating a proper breakfast, but it's possible that I could at least try to eat that yogurt or cereal every day even if it's not psychologically satisfying, as a road to inducing three meals a day.

JumpStart: Cement

glue
adhere
stick
stone
bones
muscles
shrimp
tiny
small
doll
action-figure
superhero
radioactive
spider
insect
butterfly
flight
plane
clouds
thunder
gods
wrath
anger
jealousy
quarrel
spat
divorce
separate
fail
cat
laughter
joy
nurse
twins
similarity
difference
unique
danger
sign
cartoons
animation
liveliness
dancing
trip
fall
leaves
renew
rinse
repeat

Chapter Twenty-Three: Blue Roses (or: Green Roses, How Crazy Would That Be)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Intuition is a funny thing. Sometimes it is incredibly helpful, sometimes it is incredibly harmful; but it's always difficult to define. Intuition is very separate from reasonable thought, but can be combined with reason for a better result. Sometimes, our intuition practically seems a precognitive ability; whenever I'm just about to sit down to eat and my phone rings, I know with terrible certainty that my mother will be on the other end of the line, and thus far I've rarely been incorrect in this assumption.

There's a creative thinking technique dubbed "Brainwriting" which attempts to leverage the power of intuition. Basically, I write down questions relating to some issues and then just stare blankly into space until an answer pops into my head, and hastily write the answers down. Seems simple! Let's try it.

I will try to figure out what sort of informational "How To" speech I should give for my Techniques of Speaking class on Friday.

Questions

What will take approximately five minutes to explain?

What will keep my audience (college students) interested?

What do I have the props for / can I use PowerPoint to explain?

What do I know that doesn't relate to gaming?

What's an esoteric subject I could explore, rather than a practical one?

Answers:

...

...

...

I can't think of a darned thing. This would be the problem with intuition, I suppose; I've stared blankly at the wall for about half an hour and haven't come up with anything that fit the necessary parameters.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

Well, this is the first time I actually failed to turn up anything at all useful from a Thinkertoys exercise, though I think I may have to revisit this later because the fault could just be in my frame of mind. Still, I can't peg this as the most reliable idea generator.

A short note about my creative environment:

For this exercise it was advised that I find a creative, zen-like environment, so I returned to my cave and wrote this in the comfort of my dorm room. It's pretty late, and the sun gave up the ghost awhile back, so the only light is from the room light. My roommate's deeply absorbed in something and being quiet as a ghost, though for good measure I threw on droning music to help drown the outside world out. I just got food, so I'm well-fed, and it's nice and cool in the room.

My Metaphoric Quotient (No, I'm Not Sure That's a Thing)

So, here are a couple of exercises that don't directly relate to anything beyond flexing those old creative brain muscles. Enjoy!

TASK:

If there's one thing that I think about when someone asks me about a mindless chore, it's doing laundry. Generally I mentally insert the descriptors "tedious" and "agonizing." Unfortunately, it's something that has to be done on at least a bi-weekly basis if I want clean boxers and plaid shorts. Like most mindless tasks, however, I can take solace in focusing on the basic rhythm: sort, load, wait forty minutes, transfer to dryer, wait an hour, fold, hang up.

Alright, so it's a somewhat staccato rhythm. I suppose I could narrow the main rhythmic part of the experience down to just "folding laundry." Grab, fold vertically, fold horizontally, toss in the basket, etc.

THEATER:

Well, this is an easy one. For one of my previous Thinkertoy exercises I did "Brutethink," where you find a random word and then force relations from it to the subject at hand, and turned up the interesting word "plethora." This is a pretty close descendant of its original Greek 'plethore' (fullness) to plethein (to grow full) in Medieval Latin. At some point this took on a negative connotation, it seems, as plethora was used as a term for a condition wherein the patient had an excess of blood. I don't know how such a condition ever came to pass, come to think of it, since the cure for everything from a stubbed toe to demonic possession back then was blood-letting.

EMPATHY:

Let's see, whose shoes could I walk a mile in. The most recent movie I saw starred Nicholas Cage in some capacity, so let's go with him for the laughs.

Bobby Speck as Nicholas Cage

Suddenly, horrifyingly, I'm reduced to a single emotional output of vaguely goofy blandness. Once I was relatively attractive, but my sedentary lifestyle and the willingness of the studio to airbrush my musculature instead of telling me to get off my butt and work out for my movies has given me unfortunate jowls. On the plus side, I now have more money then I ever could have obtained from a life-time of honest labor. With this money I can move to some remote place, like Siberia, and hide myself away from the world in relative comfort.

Nicholas Cage as Bobby Speck

I'm incredibly but blandly frustrated. Whenever I jab randomly at the keys of a keyboard I don't automagically triangulate the position of buried treasure, and when I make logical leaps of faith that reach far enough to canvas the Grand Canyon I just wind up driving forty miles out of my way and feeling extremely silly. On the plus side, I no longer inspire derision from movie-goers and I have a few years left before junk food completely ruins my manly figure, so that's something I suppose.

... man, Nicholas Cage is really not someone I want to be. Empathy over.

BrainBank: People on the Internet Are People Too Edition

Here's your "pause for thought" moment of the day. Awhile back a photo was circulating the internet, of a mom on a Segway pushing her baby in a stroller. There was much merriment and mocking on behalf of the "lazy" mom; the photo was popular enough to get a derisive comment from Jason Chen, a writer for the popular gadget blog Gizmodo.

As it turns out, the mom in question, Melissa Hofstetter, is a cancer survivor who lost her left leg in the fight and understandably has some difficulty getting around. Just goes to show, context is everything.

Even though few people remember the article, Jason Chen just quite admirably resurrected the topic in order to give a heartfelt apology to Melissa and remind the internet community that the people in these photographs and videos that circulate the internet are, in fact, people; and it's often wiser to err on the side of understanding.

Chapter Fifteen: The Great Transpacific Airline and Storm Door Company (or: It's Business Time)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Today I'm going to briefly look into the workings of a theoretical gaming company that my future self heads.

1. "What is our business?"

Well, our business is the gaming business, which is pretty broad. This should probably be narrowed down to something specific, like videogames, or boardgames. I'm going to break from the expected and choose the boardgames end of things.

2. Define and organize your business according to:

Products or services: Boardgames
Markets: Boardgames for young adults to college-aged individuals.
Functions: Boardgames for young adults to college-aged individuals.
Technologies: Boardgames integrating digital scanning technologies.

3. Under each variable, list the key words.

PRODUCTS
traditional boards
travel-sized plastic boards

FUNCTIONS
fun

MARKETS
gaming stores
K-mart, Target, etc.
Costco and other "Big-Box" retailers
online

TECHNOLOGIES
print
electronic

Taking aspects of various variables, I could make a line of modular boardgames with expansions purchased and downloaded online to add value to a game with digital circuitry embedded.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This exercise felt, for lack of a better word, rather clinical to me. Effective, perhaps, but it wasn't exactly fun or a particular font of enthused creativity.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this in a comfortable armchair in the apartment I'm going to be living in next year, while watching "Family Guy" on TV. It's dark outside, and my friend was sitting quietly nearby watching TV with me. The air conditioning is broken, so it's a little bit warm in the room.

BrainBank: Move Over Wall-e Edition

Look at it! Isn't it adorable? For a mere seventy bucks plus hundreds of dollars in batteries (this guy eats six AAA per pop), I too could have a personal robot assistant for all of my robotic scooping needs.

Unfortunately, the amusingly-named Roboscooper can only actually lift up to an ounce, which doesn't sound incredibly helpful to me. The robot revolution isn't coming about until my robot can work the TV remote and make me a sandwich.

BrainBank: There's an Ant in My Boot Edition

This semi-stop-motion video wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I read "dude builds an art farm in his scanner and scanners it once a week for five years," but it's still pretty cool. I'd totally be inspired to start some sort of multi-year project, except that I'd have had to start it five years ago if I wanted it to actually impress anyone at this important juncture of my life.

Oh well. Ants are awesome, stop-motion is awesome, scanners are awesome, there you go.

BrainBank: Eat Your Heart Out, First Class Edition

Well, this hurt me inside to see, after recently traveling cross-country and back in the Coach class of an airplane. I had about a six-inch wide seat, with a generous four inches of real estate for my legs and the soothing sounds of screaming babies to lull me to sleep.

The Singapore Suite, on board Singapore Air's A380s, is completely cut-off from the rest of the airplane, with a bed and three-foot wide armchair. For good measure there's an integrated 23" television and multimedia center.

Of course, my tickets cost a little over four hundred dollars and the Singapore Suite costs $15,000, so I think I may be sticking to Coach regardless.

BrainBank: What a Waste of Money Edition

So this is a terrible, terrible idea. The University of Florida are spending about half a million dollars developing a motion capture game aimed at tween girls. This is supposed to help girls practice rejecting pressure from guys, which is an admirable goal. However, this is just not going to work for so many reasons.

First of all, in order to play girls need to don an awkward motion capture suit. Secondly, and more importantly, for all of that half a million dollar budget the boys look more like horrific marionette demons from hell.

Well, I guess it's still not finished, so there's time enough to at least improve the models.

... I still don't see how this is supposed to help.

BrainBank: A Nose That Can See is Worth Two That Sniff Edition

Yes, there are a good few ways of letting quadriplegics and other sorts of paralyzed people communicate in this modern day and age, but rarely have we found something so commercially viable as this. The prototype for this device, which measures nasal pressure to allow from anything from controlling a wheelchair joystick to spelling out words, cost a completely affordable $358 to produce.

In comparison, Steven Hawking's eye-tracking system costs upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

Pretty awesome that something so integral to improving quality-of-life for paralyzed individuals could finally be so commercially viable.

BrainkBank: Invisiblus Infraredus Edition

We have an invisibility cloak, rarin' to go. And by an invisibility cloak, I mean a "cloak" composed of metallic metamaterials, using tiny resonators made of chalcogenide glass arranged in spokes around the object. I only understand how about a quarter of the words in that description work, so I'm just going to go with "it's magic."

Unfortunately, it's not quite ready to go for normal light yet, per se, so we don't quite have Harry Potter's fabled invisibility cloak just yet.

BrainkBank: Mmm Pancakes Edition

At last, our dreams of wacky breakfast-making machines populating every household are about to come to fruition. Well, this isn't incredibly wacky, but it is a machine, so I'd say that's close enough.

On a serious note, though, this is pretty cool. I couldn't flip a pancake without somehow setting it on fire in midair, so this robot can officially do something that a lot of humans can't; and not an inhuman something, mind you, but a something that is domestic and close to our hearts.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: True and False (or: ...)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

It occurs to me that after a couple of days staying up later than I should have and waking up earlier than I would have liked, my creative juices may run somewhat dry. It is at these times that there's nothing to do but throw on some techno music, crank the volume, and force my brain through the wringer on some important issue.

In the interim I have before the combination of Basshunter and exhaustion overloads my brain, I will be divining the answer to a conundrum that has long plagued me: how can I remember to send relatives Thank You notes after birthdays and holidays?

Well, if there's one thing that's easy to do in life it's be contradictory, so I will counter-posit: how can I -not- remember to send relatives Thank You notes?

Well, I could do nothing. Problem solved!

...

No, but seriously though. In reversing the problem I shall reveal a solution.

If I had to define the essence of failure to thank, I would go with "Unwarranted Apathy." I did after all receive gifts of whatever value, a caring gesture on my relatives' parts. While a good gift is given without a thought of remuneration, I can't deny that failing to acknowledge a gift is as rude as my mom's always chided me about.

Scrounging for an analogy, lacking gratitude for a gift is akin to thoughtlessly trashing a pile of unused clothes rather than donating them.

Thankfully, in the age of the internet there lies a way to embrace apathy while simultaneously overcoming it. By setting up a time-delayed email, I can supply myself with the framework of a Thank You at appropriate intervals and distill the process of thanking to a thoughtless thoughtful endeavor.

To the internetmobile!

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

I'm not going to lie, I really disliked this exercise. Jumping from 'creating a paradox' to phrasing a problem as a book title to finding an analogy seemed haphazard to me; certainly not worth releasing an entire new edition of the book to include. I like to write, so the brevity of this post is telling; I'm not sure the creative method really helped me try to solve my problem at all.

A short note about my creative environment:

I wrote this later at night than I should have, so I'm tired and bleary and a little cranky. I'm lying in bed but I can't really get comfortable, and the techno I'm blaring to keep myself awake enough to work is really messing with my concentration. My roommate has the TV on, which is showing Futurama and occasionally distracting me. The room is lit but it's pitch-black outside. I didn't eat a very good dinner, and I haven't kept myself sufficiently hydrated.

BrainBank: Apparently My Name Becomes 'Folly' From the Side Edition

I don't fully understand the technology behind this, but essentially what this web service does is take your name (or any word, or jumble of letters) and create it in three dimensional space using a series of points, which is then rotates all around until it can divine some sort of recognizable word from it. So, for example, 'Bobby' becomes 'Folly', while my friend Girish's name becomes 'Girish' because even Chinese technology cannot fathom his name.

The Engrish on site is pretty amusing, too. I've wasted a good twenty minutes putting in random names of people I know, and chuckling at the words it comes up with for them.

Check it out! http://en.genzu.net/sokumen/

BrainkBank: The Typestache Makes the Man Edition

I feel betrayed that we never investigated the glorious world of typestaches in our Typography class. Clearly, this needs to be added to the curriculum, including an in-depth study of which typestache each dude is best suited for.

Just goes to show, you can get some pretty cool results just from looking at the world from a different perspective. I need to start paying attention to things on occasion.

Chapter Seventeen: Brutethink (or: Hulk Smash Puny Creative Thinking)

Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"

Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages! But mostly young adults I guess, since this post will be of particular interest to you. Today I have decided to design my ideal superhero, whom I'm sure you'll see immortalized on the silver screen within the decade.

In order to accomplish this, I am going to use the Brutethink method of creative rumination, which unfortunately does not involve the Hulk smashing things. Instead, I am going to pick a random word, examine this word and everything it connotes, and then force connections back to my original creative obstacle.

I decided to employ the highly scientific method of messaging a number of friends with 'gimme a random word' and choosing the first viable one some surprised friend spit back, which leaves me with: "plethora."

Alright, then, let's examine plethora. What are the aspects of this word?

1. It means "an overabundance of something"
2. It's uncommonly used
3. It can also refer to a depressive condition brought on by excess blood
4. Well that just made me think of depressed vampires, which amused me
5. It stems from the Greek term for "fullness"

Now to force relations between these components of my random word and superhero creation!

1. In the comic book universe, there is certainly an overabundance of super-powered people. This also puts me in mind of a Doppleganger power where the hero could generate additional copies of himself (yes, I'm making a male superhero, I'm not touching the portrayal of women in comic books with a ten foot pole).

2. Well, the most uncommon type of superhero is the completely non-super kind such as Batman, though arguably most "tech" heroes do not have superpowers. Since I've never actually seen a non-super nearly as awesome as Batman I'm going to steer clear of that archetype, leaving me with technologically-assisted.

3. Recently (more-or-less) there has been a trend toward humanizing heroes by giving them character flaws and emotional and social issues, though comic book writers seem to take this too far sometimes and dip into sudden-onset psychosis. There are enough depressive superheroes, so I'm going to take "issue caused by excess blood" and draw the inverse "anemia" from it. Weakness!

4. Well I think a vampiric superhero would be verging on the anti-hero category. I'm going to pull it back a bit and say that energy vampirism is totally on the level, which fits with the tech theme; so, the character could leech from ambient magnetic fields to power his devices, and directly siphon off energy from machines to fuel more impressive things.

5. I see a superhero name in this one. Fullness requires ample food, and one of the definitions of "amplitude" is related to electricity. Bam!

Let's see, that leaves us with the fragile, anemic hero Amplitude, alias Miles Reinhardt. An engineer at a weapons manufacturing company, Miles discovered a way to magnify the strength and agility of an individual by creating what he dubbed "resonant copies," energy-based Dopplegangers centered on their creator. An intricate device housed in an innocuous watch harnesses the power of ambient magnetic fields to generate these copies. The watch can extrude a metallic spike that when embedded into any machine can draw off energy to temporarily supercharge the device and its pilot.

Awesome! Now I just need an artist and a publishing company and I'm set to go.

Closing thoughts on this exercise:

This exercise is a little more unwieldy than most, since there's a pretty big temptation to just go with a word related to your problem instead of something truly random. I think my method of asking a non-informed, confused bystander worked out pretty well though. I'd read that comic.

A short note about my creative environment:

I actually moved from one place to another while writing this, which is a first, so I suppose I get to give both and a comparison. Initially I was working in a friend's room, sitting on his bed and leaning against the wall with a pillow. It was light outside, and some sunlight was streaming through the window. I was sufficiently distracted that I still hadn't made any progress after a few hours, so I went back to my dorm room to work, threw on my noise-isolating headphones and immersed myself in an eclectic Gothic metal, rock, and pop music. It's dark outside by now, though the room light is on and a reading light on my desk as well. My roommate's here, but doing something silently behind me.

BrainBank: The Power of the Galaxy in the Palm of Your Hand Edition

Behold, the power of the internet! Before its invention, if you weren't happy with your cell phone you just used it as a new bludgeoning instrument.

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the problem Samsung refers to is that glass phones make terrible beating sticks, whereas the reassuring weight and heft of the Galaxy S will help you fend off zombies with ease.

But seriously though, them Twitters are a pretty effective advertising tool, and it's cool to see companies taking a proactive approach to marketing.