Saturday, January 24, 2015

Shameless Plug

...for the Video Game my son is working on.

36 comments:

Jen said...

I rooted for the underdog, as usual! :-)
Those graphics are amazing.
Tell your son Good Job! :-)

Thersites said...

It's a "cinematic" trailer. The game's actual graphics are a lot "less" realistic...

He's the Lead Encounter designer, so he basically decides how the game generated characters and monsters will interact with the thousands of real people playing on-line. He also occassionally writes quests for the players to achieve higher "rank"?

Thersites said...

He also made all the 3-D models for the Oval Office furniture in this clip, when he was at UMBC studying Computer Graphics.

nicrap said...

can he help me with Diomond Rush? ;)

You must be a proud father, fj. Both your kids seem very accomplished. :)

Jen said...

Yes, FJ has good reason to be proud. :-)

Thersites said...

Thanks, I am proud and have lived vicariously through all three of them. :)

As for Diamond Rush, I'm afraid that you're on your own, nicrap. He won't be able to reveal the hidden Easter eggs.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

:P

Jen said...

"Lego jungle where dreams are made of"

:curses:

I have stepped on many a lego in the middle of the night....
sshhh...don't tell the kids, but I love to vacuum them up. :p

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

lol! They can be painful!

When I was young, my older brother and I used to build lego forts with army men inside... and we'd attack them with marbles. When the man was separated from the lego base, he was dead...

nicrap said...

Three is a good number. :)

Thersites said...

It was "good enough". :)

If #2 had been a girl, it would have been 2. My older brother has 4 boys. People in this country often denounce those in others for selecting children for sex, but we all seem to do it. Only some are less likely than others to allow their Creator to perform the selection, while the others need a firm "No" from Him.

Jen said...

Three is a good number..but I was more focused on finding that delicate balance between big, happy family vs. mom's sanity. We pushed it to the very edge, and most of the time I'm hanging on by my toes.
;-)

Thersites said...

You're a good mom, Jen! :)

Jen said...

Thank you very much, FJ. I appreciate that. :-)

nicrap said...

Are you at all partial towards any of the three? (is it even a legitimate question...if not forgive me. :))

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Sure, I think that its' pretty obvious to everyone in the family that I currently favour my daughter, who is the youngest, and that my wife favours her youngest son.

The eldest son, you see, is married and pretty much entirely self-reliant at this point.

I suspect that our individual "partialities" will likely change as the other get married/ have children of their own, etc.

nicrap said...

Sure, I think that its' pretty obvious to everyone in the family that I currently favour my daughter...

I wonder if you would admit to the same in front of them no matter how obvious it may be, which brings to mind ... do you think they read your blog? ;)

Thersites said...

I would admit it in front of them, and believe that I may have made comments to that effect as recently as this past Christmas.

None of my children currently live with me, so I doubt they have much interest in my blogging habits. They all know about the many blogs, and I do link to them occasionally on my Facebook page, so "who knows?" Perhaps after I'm gone, the blogs will have more relevance for them.

Did your parents ever admit to having favorites? I don't think that my kids really care who the current "favorites" are. They know that we'll go to extremes to help any of them, should the situation or necessity arise.

nicrap said...

hmm. Nah. I don't know about my father who when asked who he liked the best would simply laugh it off by saying, "myself." And it might have been true as well, it was very difficult to tell with my father, very inscrutable sort of fellow.

My mother on the other hand would never admit to having favorites, kind of against her idea of motherhood, which is to be hoenst the prevailing (traditional?) idea here, that parents dont really have favorites. Nonsense, really, and yet... ;)

nicrap said...

One more question. With your permission, of course. heh ... Who among them shares in your enthusiasm for higher things (i mean art, literature, philosophy, etc.)?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

At present, none of them do... but I attribute their lack of enthusiasm for their ages (upper 20's to low 30's). I really didn't get into philosophy and culture until my late 40's. Life was too busy (raising a family)... and yet, I believe that it may have been my youngest son's involvement in the theatre that lead to my conversion from a person narrowly interested largely in military history to one interested in philosophy and culture, more generally.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

I was reading the expansive "Story of Civilization" series by Durant when I stumbled across his earlier and lesser known "Story of Philosophy" book. This convinced me that if I ever truly wanted to know anything about history, I'd have to start reading "primary" sources and authors. I may have started with both Plato and Thucydides "History of the Pelloponesian War," but then I read all the tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides followed by Aristophanes Eleven Comedies, and I was hooked on understanding more than just "war"... on understanding the "aspirations" of the Greeks and Romans.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Before this time, my reading interests were largely volumes from the USNI (ie - The History of US Submarine/Destroyer Operations in WWII, or Chandler's "Wars of Napoleon"), as I worked for Martin Marietta and was involved in sustaining the MK 41 VLS System and proposing numerous naval weapons system improvements.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Erratum: "Campaigns of Napoleon"

nicrap said...

I think one of us may have said it before, but it certainly bears repeating: Will Durant's "The Story of Philosophy" may have been the reason why many of us ever became interested in the subject. May his memory lives long after him (as indeed it already has) ... and even us, hopefully! :)

But did you ever visit it again after you had moved on to primary sources yourself? I wonder how we would assess it now, critically spaking...

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

No I haven't revisited it since my original reading. And I wouldn't want to do the work an injustice and attempt to criticize it now without first doing so. After all, it was inspirational for us all, even if some of its' premises were to be proven 'false', today.

Jen said...

My mother on the other hand would never admit to having favorites, kind of against her idea of motherhood, which is to be hoenst the prevailing (traditional?) idea here, that parents dont really have favorites. Nonsense, really, and yet... ;)
----------

Nicrap! You're such an instigator! And no, your mother's idea on motherhood is NOT nonsense. :p

nicrap said...

After all, it was inspirational for us all, even if some of its' premises were to be proven 'false', today.

Indeed! and yet, i would like to revisit it at least once in order to see how my understanding has changed since.

nicrap said...

@Jen

Instigator, how so? I was telling the truth...in fact, now that i am thinking i remember her once saying something like, "not all fingers are same," but she would still not admit to having favorites among her children. ;)

Jen said...

I think it's funny that you deny being an instigator. ;-)

And your mother sounds wise in her ways. No, children are all very different.
I have actually been thinking about this very thing quite a bit lately.

My kids seem to take turns pushing me to my limits in different ways.
My son will be obstinate, but in a very calm and curious way, so that I become a drill sargeant type, which even I cannot stand. My youngest is wild and free, and sees no problem with creating artwork and experiments all over the house. I mean, why not? She acts immediately when the inspiration hits! And my eldest is pushing the envelope with her independence, which for us, has a new dimension. I am constantly frustrated and in love with each of them. I am always seeing myself from a distance, and amazed at how they each need me to love them, but in different ways.

Pardon the long and emotional comment...I just watched the new Richard Linklater movie, Boyhood. I cried 12 times during the movie, and now I'm overwhelmed with the brevity and immediacy of life.

Y'all have a good weekend! :p

Jen said...

and if you've never seen a Richard Linklater movie...I recommend:

Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
and
Before Midnight.

:D

nicrap said...

And here is my recommendation:

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
and
Breaking Dawn

:p

Thersites said...

I gave away my copy. I''ll have to get a new one. :(

Jen said...

Nicrap, have you ever seen any of the movies I recommended?

nicrap said...

lol. Not even those that i recommended. ;)

Thersites said...

The only movie of his that I've ever seen is "The Bad News Bears"...

Sorry. I prefer NOT crying at the end of a movie, if I can help it. :(