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Entries from February 2023

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Handlebar (28 Feb 2023 at 23:14)

I have this ridiculous moustache now that I grew in preparation for our vacation to Miami Beach. It's is what you could call a "handlebar moustache", the kind that can be twirled into little upturning curls at the ends, although that configuration is not very stable so it's often pointing down like an extremely exaggerated frown. I have in mind to shave the moustache, but, as with every time I have some facial hair the calculus is like, Now I have something of value, so you don't just go shaving something of value. In particular I am thinking of some scenes for this upcoming video I am making, and that the scenes would be funnier with a moustache. So that is what's going on with the face part of me right now.

I've finished up that silly project I started writing about in post #1207 but that then got interrupted by several other things (e.g. Pac Tom Finale). So now I just need to finish writing up the paper (and I made a big dent in writing it during vacation, which is one of the kinds of things I like to do when I'm on vacation, just wear my aviator sunglasses with the gradient tint and my ridiculous moustache and sit by the pool and write "research papers" on my iPad) and a video. This one is, like, not very relatable, so if you were disappointed that the Pac Tom video was too easy to understand, you may be less disappointed. I hope that we have a SIGBOVIK this year. It always feels like "maybe this is the year that the dream dies" around this time, until some hero emerges to organize it, but we do seem to be pushing it. It kind of has to be a CMU student organizing it, and at this point I don't really know any CMU students any more to try to talk into it. But even if there is no SIGBOVIK, I will make silly projects (although maybe never finish them due to No Deadlines).

Also embarrassing is that I keep getting sucked back into Cod Of Duty II: Cod. Warfare 2 (could be related to the World of Bouncecraft series?) since they keep putting up new chores that I can do to unlock new things that are a lot like the things I already unlocked, like guns that aren't good and high numbers and more chores. Which is also sad because it seems like there are a lot of other good games out there, like you just go on Steam and you see all these artful games, but you can't play them all, especially if you are nearly level 250 in Cod of Duty. An example of a "game" I have been "playing" is Acronymy.net, which was made by my friend David. It's basically self-explanatory, but I'll explain anyway: We're trying to build a full dictionary where each word is defined using an acronym (expansion of the word itself). So for example "gasket" is "gummy annular seal keeping everything tight." These are fun to make manually, but I've also been working on some tools for assisting that process, like using word2vec and some models I built myself, both because they're good toy problems and because I want to make good acronyms. Maybe a post with some more details about that in the future but for now I am feeling the Demand Upon the Yeomen.

(5 comments — almost 2 years ago) [ comment ]

Entries from January 2023

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Winter is a time for hibernation (31 Jan 2023 at 23:54)

Oops! Almost forgot to post on time this month (rules really do not require me to wait until the last day of the month, by the way, but somehow I can't stop myself), but it looks like I'll barely make it.

Since I posted a very elaborate video last month and it was holiday break, I spent most of January doing relaxing things, like the hyperrealistic War and Chore simulator called "Call of Duty II: Modern Warfare 2" (or something like that). I think it's actually pretty good if you like that sort of thing, but when I'm playing online I'm playing on "hard" mode since I mute myself and everybody else; I just can't handle listening to these people. Better to just anonymously kill each other in an endless loop. And then I got self-conscious about playing co-op missions with muted teammates, so I've been doing the co-op missions (e.g. "DMZ") solo. I think I've almost unlocked everything, so hopefully I can wind that down soon.

I did start work on a project that excites me, although it's looking pretty daunting. I think it will be fun to try and perhaps even produce a good story if it fails. But I also have been putting together some kind of finale for the mysterious project that I began when I had covid this summer and that got pretty out of hand. I'm currently in the phase where I can clearly do something with it, but I need to invent the right puzzle for myself that is both "possible" and "not too easy," and whose rules are "horrifying" but "elegant in their way." You know? It's a weird design space but one that I have some practice in.

OK, time to submit right before the clock strikes midnight!

(1 comment — almost 2 years ago) [ comment ]

Entries from December 2022

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The Pac Tom documentary! (28 Dec 2022 at 11:01)

It is done! I finished the Pac Tom project to run the length of every street in Pittsburgh in October, and (yes it took months) also this video documenting the project and finale:

How I ran the length of every street in Pittsburgh: PAC TOM

The Pac Tom site now has the final data, but the video is the definitive way to see it!

I added the downloadable Soundtrack for completionists. I was horrified to find, when watching this video with some friends after I uploaded, that I had accidentally muted one of the audio tracks for the "final" version. You can rectify this by playing "Street (Trap Remix)" at exactly 11:58.

Categories: mp3 videos momentous pac tom

(7 comments — almost 2 years ago) [ comment ]

Entries from November 2022

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Chores and chores (30 Nov 2022 at 23:32)

November is really busy 'round here, although I think that's basically over now (I mean the busy time, although also November).

I spent pretty much all of Thanksgiving break working on this Pac Tom video, which is well underway (but which I am already now quite sick of!). I'm trying a new approach to the planning and execution of this one, being more deliberate about deciding on the scenes and "script" ahead of time, and then trying to have fewer edits in the voiceover for a bit of a smoother flow (and hopefully less painful editing). It's too soon to tell if this is actually helping the quality or reducing the amount of edits, but at least it's some different puzzles to solve than I'm used to. Since there's no built-in deadline, though, and I can jump around from part to part, I have found myself getting distracted by minute details, like e.g. I wanted to have the exact correct font from PAC-MAN so I dumped the ROMs to extract it and then decided I might as well finish off the missing ASCII character set, giving us pac-man.ttf. Anyway I think I should be able to get it done this month, which is good because I'm already itching to move onto other projects (including finishing up that other weird thing I started in the summer which may just end up being a "regular" SIGBOVIK project at this point?).

I did insulate a lot of the attic, but nobody really wants to hear about that!

I played through Rogue Legacy 2, which I liked. It's a platform roguelike (really a "roguelite" since it leans heavily on the permanent progress you make by gaining gold/xp with each run), a genre that tempts me in a few times a year and then usually makes me regret the amount of time I spend trying to win. This sequel was a significant improvement over the first one (which I played many years ago and liked OK, but would not particularly recommend). This one has vastly better art and a more interesting castle to explore, and for the part where you're discovering the parts of the castle and abilities ("Metroidvania"-style) it was really nice. In the endgame I felt there was a bit too much grinding to power-up your character and that the grinding was more repetitive than it needed to be (maybe my own mistake for focusing mostly on my favorite classes; but Boxer and Ronin are just so much better than the ranged weapon classes, for example??). When I won it seemed like there was a lot of stuff left that I hadn't seen, so I tried another pass in NG+ but that did not seem worth it. Anyway, the game overall was very solid if you like this sort of thing. It did somehow make me nostalgic for Spelunky 2 as well (pretty much my all time favorite) so I have been doing the daily challenges recently, but I have pretty much lost all my skills in that game. [:embarrassed emoji:]

(6 comments — almost 2 years ago) [ comment ]

Entries from October 2022

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October surprise (31 Oct 2022 at 21:15)

Hi! It's the busy time of year again and I feel behind on a great many things.

BUT! I did actually get a lot done this month. First, we finally got some some Dangerous Material Experts to come out and properly abate the asbestos-containing vermiculite in the attic, which had been up there not causin' anybody any problems, but whose undisturbability was blocking a whole series of home improvement projects (e.g. get better insulation in the attic) that had been cumulatively weighing on my mind for years. Even though I'm willing to do a lot of work myself (I prefer it, even) asbestos abatement is a rare example of something I don't even think about trying. So that's great and now I have a new urgent problem, which is an uninsulated attic as freezing temperatures approach, but this one is something I can manage to do myself with some grind, which as you know is my cup of jam. The hardest part may be getting all these huge bags of fiberglass Home from the Depot:

Mininsulation

but the Mini is barely big enough to take two "passengers" at a time with the top down.

And speaking of grinding being my tea, I finally finished the Pac Tom Project! Well, finished in the sense that I did the final run and all the streets are now completely complete. The reason I took so long to actually finish this thing (it's been one street away for over a year now) is that I wanted it to have a fitting finale, with a costume and help from friends to commemorate and film that finale, and the costume's construction was ambitious and hit some snags relating to physics and so on. But this last few weeks have been perfect fall weather in Pittsburgh (and it's about to get Not Perfect Weather real soon), so that was enough motivation to solve the problems and get it done. I will put together a video shortly for this project, so I don't want to say too much more or officially celebrate here, as the video will be the right way to experience it (unless you are one of the gang who helped out, and then: Thanks!!).

And speaking of running, I did do the Detroit Marathon a few weeks before that. It was a fun course, with the bridge into Canada at sunrise being the highlight (I found running through the security checkpoints to be weird and funny, too). We had perfect conditions (cool and dry) and the hotel was right on the start line, and the course is very flat, so it could have been a good opportunity to set a PR. But I'm definitely still not feeling recovered from COVID (but I ran a whole marathon; I know, cry me a river right?), and relatedly did not train enough, so I did not push myself (and also Walled pretty bad around mile 18). 3h52m05s is not that bad given the circumstances.

Finally I did play some more games. I was in the mood for a low-stress one, so I played Need for Speed(TM) Heat on sale for $3.50, which was definitely worth $3.50. Imagine Grand Theft Auto V but you can't ever leave your car. I liked the day/night mechanic and running from the cops was actually stressful and hard (until you figure out the tricks). Humorous to me is that almost my exact real-life car is in this game, but for a long time I was not high-enough level to drive it (which is also silly because it gives you like a Ferrari first), but that was a good goal to unlock it. I'm done with that one now and now I'm midway through Manifold Garden, which is pretty neat. It reminds me a lot of Antichamber, whose puzzles and general vibe I think I liked more, but some of the graphics effects in M.G. are quite unique and impressive. Meanwhile one of my side projects for this video involves some very simple 3D graphics programming, which I suck at, and so when my brain sugars run out and I give up on the graphics programming to play video games instead, it's like an extra humiliating experience.

(3 comments — almost 2 years ago) [ comment ]

... Oct 2022 continued

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