LAUNCHPAD

Wow that is cool. I just created the "Subol" product on Launchpad and pushed a bzr branch to it (created from my SVN repo with svn2bzr -- Jelmer Vernooij's version). Ok, I don't know if they want to be considered this way, but Launchpad at this point is basically a Sourceforge competitor. Subol now has a product page, code hosting, bug tracker, project news... You could also squint and say it provides web hosting with its wiki. :-)

To get started:

1. Create a Launchpad account.
2. Create a product.
3. Upload a public SSH key.
4. Create/otherwise possess a local bzr repository.
5. bzr push --create-prefix sftp://USERNAME@bazaar.launchpad.net/~USERNAME/PROJECTNAME/your-branch-name.
6. Hack!
   

Don't ask what Subol is or your brain will immediately crizzle.

Go to PAX

Ok? Go. To the Penny-Arcade Expo. It will be August 25-27, and that is Friday through Sunday. I just pre-registered for $35 American Pesos. Pre-registration ends in a few days.

From what I hear, it is bigger and better than E3. Also, there is Pen and Paper Role Playing Twenty Four Seven and Video Game Exhibitions. Gabe talks about about PAX here.

You know who you are.

These are my *travel* books

When I left Boston for Vancouver and Pittsburgh, I took one book with me. That was Battle Royale. I've since picked up, err, a few more. Let me try to tell you about them without going on for three pages (that will be hard). Man, now I am going to have to take a whole extra bag full of books with me to Boston.



Battle Royale - Koushun Takami

Man, this is a freaky weird book. Let me give you a hint about it: the header of the first chapter is "42 students remaining: Chapter 1". At chapter 5, the header is "40 students remaining: Chapter 5". It gets worse from there. This is a book about the Republic of Greater East Asia forcing a group of 42 Japanese middle school students to fight to their deaths on a deserted island. Each student is given a single weapon, ranging from a table fork to a full-on machine gun.

In particular, the story is about how three of the students decide to fight back against the corrupt government that forces them to do this. The style is rather morbidly detailed, describing the "approximate" number of centimeters someone's head bounces off the ground after they fall to their death, and so forth. It's worth reading if you're already predisposed to Japanese pulp horror/action, but otherwise it's probably too shallow for most readers of Fine Fiction.

The Dreamthief's Daughter - Michael Moorcock

If you haven't read Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné, then you should. It's about a rather anti-heroish guy who is forced to basically kill lots of people and make a pact with a chaos god of Hell. But, in his heart (and against his society's nature), he is actually a good guy! Really! The Dreamthief's Daughter is the story of how Elric fights Hitler. Ok.

The Dark Side of the Sun - Terry Pratchett

Pratchett rocks, etc. This is the second story of his that I've read that isn't part of the Discworld series. It's a sci-fi-ish story set in the same continuity (I think) as his Strata, which I found a bit better. It's about a guy who is destined to find the Joker's World, which is supposedly where the Jokers that created the universe are living.

Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card

This is awesome. I am going to have to continue reading the series of books about Bean. People tell me that the original sequels to Ender's Game (the ones that are set like eighty jillion years into the future) suck, but apparently the ones that are set NOT eighty jillion years into the future are awesome.

Sunstorm - Arthur Clarke / Stephen Baxter

Ok, Clarke is not very good at making characters, and this story isn't terribly exciting so far, but I'm only about 1/3 through it.

FLCL - GAINAX / Hajime Ueda

This is a manga based on a short anime series that is really, really good. I avoided getting the manga a while ago because I figured it wouldn't be worth it after seeing the anime (which is really, really good), but I've changed my mind. The manga is also really, really good. And dirty. In short, it is about a space alien who looks like a 21 year old girl and rides a vespa and carries a bass guitar that has a ripcord-started motor built into it. When she hits a particular 12-year-old (or so) boy in the head with this bass guitar, robots come out of it and fight. There's also a very weird love story built in.

What I haven't read yet and which is in that pile in the photo:

• Equal Rites - Pratchett
• Lords and Ladies - Pratchett
• The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck
• Ulysses - James Joyce
• The Snow - Adam Roberts

I will tell you about them after I read them!

I have been in like seventeen places

Up until a bit over three weeks ago, I was living in Hobart for a year and a half (or so). Since then, I haven't been living anywhere. I've hung out in Sydney, slept a week in Boston, and worked furiously for two weeks in Vancouver since then. Tomorrow, I'm headed to Pittsburgh to spend some time with my parents (while working). Then at some point I'll be going back to Boston, and at that point I madly hope that I will finally be able to settle down.

Sydney

Sydney was cool. I basically stopped over there for a day to hang out with Andrew Bennetts and Mary Gardiner, while on my way to Boston from Hobart. Andrew and his sister were celebrating their birthdays, so it was pretty good timing. Before the food and drink began, though, the three of us travelled around Sydney to do a bit of tourism. I finally got to see the opera house up close and crossed the harbour on the ferry. It was a beautiful day, if bloody hot (I think it reached over 40 degrees). After that, we met up with all of Andrew's friends and ate lots of delicious pizza and drank lots of fantastic Belgian beer. We ended up, yet again, at the Badde Manors cafe, where they have the most delicious mud pie ever. My extremely stuffed stomach wasn't up for it, though, so I instead opted for their delicious sorbet.

Boston

I slept a lot in Boston, but also helped glyph move house for two days ("only a few pieces of furniture" my foot), tried to help but mostly hindered Jean-Paul in the development of Radical (a platform for tile-based graphical web games), and experienced what it's like to *really need* to wear gloves and a warm winter hat for the first time in two years. I also watched a cool Japanese movie with Ying.

Vancouver

Canonical decided to fly me to Vancouver to have a sprint with my new project team members. If I told you about the Canonical project I've been doing, I think my contract says that I have to kill you, so I'll leave that out. I will say that I'm very happy with my job so far, and that Vancouver is a way cool city.

In The Groove

While revelling last week in Vancouver, I played In The Groove for the first time ever at a sleezy arcade. In fact, it was the first time I'd played any dance game. Man, is that hell of fun. I did some research and found that there are a few machines near where I'll be in Pittsburgh, so I think I'll have to go push some quarters. I plan on getting the playstation version of the game as soon as I get back to my playstation, which I think is currently in Boston. By the way, ITG is done by Roxor games, whose president I can proudly say is on my AIM buddy list. Unfortunately, I haven't yet convinced him to give me a free arcade machine.

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