Sunday, May 11, 2014
SS-581 Blueback
Monday, September 2, 2013
URU thingies!
This year marks 10 years of URU. A multiplayer online game that is based off the Myst games. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst_Online:_Uru_Live)
I have not played the entire 10 years but, I did make friends there, have fun, etc. and thought it would be fitting to post some of the Myst/ URU related projects I have worked on over the last several years.
For the tl;dr peoples: scroll down to the pictures. Pictures are where the shiny things are.
---
A brief history of my Myst obsession:
1993: Myst comes out and I get to play it on our new at the time Apple PowerPC. One of the first games I ever owned on CD-ROM.
1997: Riven comes out and I get to play it on our less than new computer of the day. Takes me almost a year to complete it on and off.
2001: Myst 3 is released and I rush down to buy it. While the game is pretty, the story isn't as good as the first two (IMHO) and I end up beating it by walkthrough sometime later.
late 2003: I get URU: Ages beyond Myst. On Christmas 2003 I got the single player incarnation of URU. URU: Live was going on but I thought I would do the single player version first. Unknown to me: the funding for URU: Live was pulled just 2 months later.
2004: In the same month: Myst 4 comes out and I join Until URU. Myst 4 was ok but now I get to play URU with other people! Since Live was canceled, in sept. of 2004 Until URU was released as a fan-operated client/ server system. It was now possible to play URU multiplayer again for the first time since Live was canceled.
2005: In early 2005 I became a co-admin on the Great Tree shard. I had great fun with great people and got to learn a little bit about how the game worked and some simple python coding. (There were far more skilled people in the programing areas than I.) Had great fun playing both in Until URU and in Alcugs (an open source port of the game that was being developed).
2006- 2013: Things in here are kind of a blur. I participated in two beta tests, two Mysterium conventions, the beginning and ending of a couple incarnations of URU, and then kinda disappeared off radar due to RL, other hobbies, work, lack of interest, etc.
---
Most of my projects can be divided into two groups: Music videos from in game events and metal working projects. These were done in my most active years on URU which were 2004-2007ish. Coincidentally, the years before I got a full time job lol.
Things:
[Photo by Ashtar]
These were some keychains I machined out of brass in 2005. I made 6 of them iirc (and one for myself ;) )
A CNC milled Great Tree logo in aluminum
A CNC milled D'ni ring in brass (I wish I had a better picture than this..)
A replica of the KI used in URU (kinda like a fancy communications/GPS like device)
A remote controlled wheeled traffic cone. Cones are something of an inside joke to people who play URU. We would move them around in various ways. Make art out of them, surround someone with them, use code to put them in very odd locations, etc. I made this for a Mysterium in 2006. The motor I scavenged for this was woefully underpowered and by this picture it was on it's last legs. I did get a pic 'chasing' Rand Miller (Atrus) with a cone though. Mission Accomplished. :)
Movies:
I didn't have a full version of fraps (the screen capture program I used to make these) until the middle of the 2nd movie. So you will see the watermark on some (ok, a lot) of the footage.
These two were uploaded to Youtube by Tomala a few years back. I need to sort out some issues before uploading the rest. It seems the files no longer want to be read by my old mac and I may have to re-render them. I may not have all the pieces anymore. I used to have all my URU videos hosted on a private server but, it appears it is longer up. :(
UU2: My second URU movie. Made with footage right before and beginning when I got my adminKI. I don't know if it is my slow computer or if it is a bit out of sync but it is all I have up atm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQxH3X_Iqgo
Having fun in UU: My last full song length video. Made mostly with footage of me and some friends messing around on the Slackers, H'URU project shard, and possible the Great Tree shard. Again, not sure if it is my slow computer but it seems a bit out of sync.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDq-D4WtTHQ
--
Hoped you enjoyed the Myst ramblings. I may add more to this post as I re-discover things buried on old hard drives.
I have not played the entire 10 years but, I did make friends there, have fun, etc. and thought it would be fitting to post some of the Myst/ URU related projects I have worked on over the last several years.
For the tl;dr peoples: scroll down to the pictures. Pictures are where the shiny things are.
---
A brief history of my Myst obsession:
1993: Myst comes out and I get to play it on our new at the time Apple PowerPC. One of the first games I ever owned on CD-ROM.
1997: Riven comes out and I get to play it on our less than new computer of the day. Takes me almost a year to complete it on and off.
2001: Myst 3 is released and I rush down to buy it. While the game is pretty, the story isn't as good as the first two (IMHO) and I end up beating it by walkthrough sometime later.
late 2003: I get URU: Ages beyond Myst. On Christmas 2003 I got the single player incarnation of URU. URU: Live was going on but I thought I would do the single player version first. Unknown to me: the funding for URU: Live was pulled just 2 months later.
2004: In the same month: Myst 4 comes out and I join Until URU. Myst 4 was ok but now I get to play URU with other people! Since Live was canceled, in sept. of 2004 Until URU was released as a fan-operated client/ server system. It was now possible to play URU multiplayer again for the first time since Live was canceled.
2005: In early 2005 I became a co-admin on the Great Tree shard. I had great fun with great people and got to learn a little bit about how the game worked and some simple python coding. (There were far more skilled people in the programing areas than I.) Had great fun playing both in Until URU and in Alcugs (an open source port of the game that was being developed).
2006- 2013: Things in here are kind of a blur. I participated in two beta tests, two Mysterium conventions, the beginning and ending of a couple incarnations of URU, and then kinda disappeared off radar due to RL, other hobbies, work, lack of interest, etc.
---
Most of my projects can be divided into two groups: Music videos from in game events and metal working projects. These were done in my most active years on URU which were 2004-2007ish. Coincidentally, the years before I got a full time job lol.
Things:
[Photo by Ashtar]
A CNC milled Great Tree logo in aluminum
A CNC milled D'ni ring in brass (I wish I had a better picture than this..)
A replica of the KI used in URU (kinda like a fancy communications/GPS like device)
A remote controlled wheeled traffic cone. Cones are something of an inside joke to people who play URU. We would move them around in various ways. Make art out of them, surround someone with them, use code to put them in very odd locations, etc. I made this for a Mysterium in 2006. The motor I scavenged for this was woefully underpowered and by this picture it was on it's last legs. I did get a pic 'chasing' Rand Miller (Atrus) with a cone though. Mission Accomplished. :)
Movies:
I didn't have a full version of fraps (the screen capture program I used to make these) until the middle of the 2nd movie. So you will see the watermark on some (ok, a lot) of the footage.
These two were uploaded to Youtube by Tomala a few years back. I need to sort out some issues before uploading the rest. It seems the files no longer want to be read by my old mac and I may have to re-render them. I may not have all the pieces anymore. I used to have all my URU videos hosted on a private server but, it appears it is longer up. :(
UU2: My second URU movie. Made with footage right before and beginning when I got my adminKI. I don't know if it is my slow computer or if it is a bit out of sync but it is all I have up atm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQxH3X_Iqgo
Having fun in UU: My last full song length video. Made mostly with footage of me and some friends messing around on the Slackers, H'URU project shard, and possible the Great Tree shard. Again, not sure if it is my slow computer but it seems a bit out of sync.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDq-D4WtTHQ
--
Hoped you enjoyed the Myst ramblings. I may add more to this post as I re-discover things buried on old hard drives.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Doug Rogers
One of my favorite people passed away last week. Words can not describe how much he meant to me or how much I will miss him. He not only helped me to be where I am today by getting me started in the world of machining but, was a true friend. I will miss his snarky sense of humor (even when it was at my expense) and I am thankful for the short time I knew him. Thank you for everything Doug. You will be sorely missed.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Hikes and things!
Decided to use this blog to post some pics of hikes I have done in the last year and in the future. I had 1 pic from all the hikes I did last year. Then Blogger crashed and now it is only showing the 2 most recent on the 'Hikes' page. *mope*. Oh well, I will try again later.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
1939 Ensemble
It's saturday night, my GPS isn't working but I am off to see a show! After some roundabout trekking through Portland suburbia I found The Know, a small club on Alberta st. Playing was a two person group called 1939 Ensemble consisting of Jose Medeles (of The Breeders and AKA the guy I bought my drum set from ;) ) and David Coniglio.
Here is a collection of clips from their show. It was pretty awesome. They also played with Old Light but I didn't stay long enough to see them play. Stupid getting up early for work and its negative effects on how late I can stay up any other time. :P
Here is a collection of clips from their show. It was pretty awesome. They also played with Old Light but I didn't stay long enough to see them play. Stupid getting up early for work and its negative effects on how late I can stay up any other time. :P
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Canada EH!?
So... I can be random sometimes...
About a month ago on a Friday morning I saw a Facebook post that Todd Sucherman (who is one of my favorite drummers) was doing a clinic in Langley, BC on Saturday evening. Sooo.. Of course I want to go. Only problem was (besides being less than a day away to pack/plan) it was about 6 hours away.
I didn't have any time I could take from work so Saturday morning me, my mom and my sister (the poor people I suckered into going with me) left for Canada.
I had never been there so I had a ton of fun navigating (especially since I found out data roaming rates were $16 /MB so I couldn't use my Google Maps on my phone O_o). I had fortunately printed off backup "hardcopy" maps of the places we were going.
The drum clinic was in Langley but everyone else was more interested in visiting Vancouver. So we stayed in a hotel in downtown Vancouver. I found a cheesy tourist's map that was my new best friend for navigating the strange land of Vancouver, BC.
The clinic in Langley was awesome! Todd put on a great show and I wish it would have lasted all night.
I even got to have him sign a drum head for me and I got a picture with him *fan girl flail* ...HEY! I allowed to fan girl flail once and a while :P
*shifty eyes*
After the clinic was over it was back to Vancouver for a short night of sleep. In the morning we did some shopping around Vancouver and headed back home.
Overall, we spent more time driving and traveling than we actually spent in Canada but it was worth it *grin*.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
EMP (round 2) and Music School stuff from May 2010
I am a little late posting this stuff but back in May I went up to Seattle to visit Randi. We had a ton of fun. We hung out for a while after hours at a Seattle music school she teaches at. I fail at every other instrument on the planet but they had an old beat up Chinese drumset in the corner that has seen one to many 4 year-olds beating on it and hasn't seen a drum key in ages (although it needed more than tuning and we didn't have anything to work on it with lol). The kick drum sounded a bit like GWAAUUUNNNGGGG when you hit it so I ended up sticking my sweatshirt in front of it. Helped a little.. We spent a lot of time just goofing around. She played piano and guitar and I screwed around on the drums. Here is a short clip. I make some silly faces heh. lol.
We also made another trip to the Seattle Experience Music Project. It was a monday morning which was nice because we got to spend a lot of time playing in their music rooms without waiting in lines. I love the DW drum kit they have.
This trip was a lot of fun. We did a lot of goofing off, shopping, playing music, and just hanging out. Don't get to do all those things at once very often.
We also made another trip to the Seattle Experience Music Project. It was a monday morning which was nice because we got to spend a lot of time playing in their music rooms without waiting in lines. I love the DW drum kit they have.
This trip was a lot of fun. We did a lot of goofing off, shopping, playing music, and just hanging out. Don't get to do all those things at once very often.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)