Monthly Archives: June 2009

Personal Blog

Pedigree Dog Documentary

An interesting (and somewhat disturbing) documentary on the genetic problems with pedigree dogs, yoinked from Klandagi.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44215931

Now, I know most people on the internet don’t want to spend an hour watching a video, so I’ve highlighted a few interesting moments in the documentary. Scrub on! I do recommend watching the full thing, however. This is a BBC documentary, so focuses on British pedigree dogs and show dogs.

I find it particularly interesting during the part where they compare show breeds today to how the breed looked a hundred years ago (scrub to 6:40 to see).

One commenter notes how dog show judges have a huge impact on the direction the breed takes, since breeders will produce dogs to win shows.

At 16:30, the documentary points out that the Kennel Club had its roots in the Eugenics Movement. Captain Kirk would be outraged! Joking aside, though, wouldn’t it be fascinating it we exercised the same attitude in human models as we do with show dogs, as far as selective breeding for desirable traits? I wonder what they would end up looking like after 50 years?

Someone draw a picture! I want to see a concept.

At 18:40, I discovered that 1 in 20 Rhodesian Ridgebacks is born without a ridge. Fascinating! Listen to the breeder talk right afterwards about what a shame it is that these new uppity vets won’t put down a healthy puppy for its lack of ridge.

At 24:00, it talks about how pet insurance is more expensive for a pedigree dog than a mutt due to the health implications, which I find smirk-worthy.

32:00 shows another interesting comparison between the original and today’s pug, and 40:40 compares the change in the basset hound.

43:50 reveals a conflict of explanation of the anatomical features of the bulldog between bulldog breeders and dog historians. The idea of unusual explanations to justify non-traditional traits as being traditional is something I run into a lot in the martial arts world, and so I can empathize with the frustration of the historian.

49:40 finishes up talking about an activist raising awareness on syringomyelia in King Charles Springer Spaniels (an issue frequented several times throughout the documentary), and the resistance offered up by breeders of the dog.

So there you go, I hope my highlights may have gotten a few more people to watch a bit of this. Comments?

Personal Blog

Squee!

I am full of happy, you guys. A near-full month has flown by right under my nose, and I am completely at ease with the pace. I don’t feel like I’m in a hurry for anything.

I love my job! The Insomniacs scooped me right back up into their pack, and I feel completely at home there. I love my team and I love the work that I’m doing, and I try every day to be grateful for it and for how lucky I am.

I also love the place that I live. There are so many flowers piled up outside my window, and every day hummingbirds zoom about and drink out of them. It smells wonderful! I was hesitant about choosing to live by myself out here at first, but now I’m very glad I did. Owning my space has inspired me to take responsibility for it, and I’ve made it into a place where I am happy to be. I took Joyce’s suggestion and printed out several photos from my trip to the Phipps Conservatory, framed them, and hung them about my apartment.

The greatest thing about moving across the country and starting a new career is the opportunity it gives for creating good habits. It’s like a clean slate for starting up routines.

I’ve been cooking regularly again, like I used to before grad school, and I have a little herb garden which I use just about every day.

I’ve started riding my bike to work every day, and I’ve been stretching every morning and every night. It’s like I’m getting healthy again, or something!

Anyway, I’m trying to burn a solid memory of how I feel these days into my mind, so that when I run into hard times in the future, I can call it back up and smile.

Games Played

Training

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A week into work and already things are in full swing! I am extremely happy 🙂

Now that I am a Dr. Professional Game Designer, and now that I have some threads of consistency to schedule around, it’s time to start training! That is, it’s time to start catching up on games that I have been intending to play. As I started making a list and a plan, I realized that this is rather like having a workout schedule or an exercise program.

Dividing daily workouts between cardio, upper body strength, lower body strength…dividing daily game playing between the Wii, the PS3, the PS2, the PC…it’s amusingly similar.

An issue to contend with is my budget: I’m in no place to start buying games, even used ones, so I’m starting with what I already have or what I can scrounge up for free or very cheap, via Insomniac’s game library or Gamefly or whatever. Jake at work suggested that I could scrap by pretty well on demos and betas, and gave me a multiplayer beta voucher for Uncharted to get started (it rhymes, tee hee!).

So, here’s my starting list of games to either beat or sample.

Wii
1) Twilight Princess – which, I realized the copy I have doesn’t even belong to me, it’s DC’s! I borrowed it and never gave it back because I’m a TERRIBLE FRIEND

PS3
2) Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty – hooray for Insomniac freebies!
3) Assassin’s Creed – I feel like I practically played through most of this when watching Joe last spring, and I would like to play the sequel when it comes out, so I need to catch up
4) Far Cry 2 – I saw so many talks about this game at GDC this year that I want to check it out and see what’s what
4) Flower – I only got to play a tiny bit when we were playing it at Schell, so I went ahead and bought it

PS2
5) Fatal Frame – oh how you taunt me! This game is effing hard, but not in a discouraging way, in an “omg I must conquer you!” way. I’m gonna get myself a guide and play through and have enough film for the last two nights. SO THERE!
6) Ico – this gets referenced and brought up in game design discussion so much that I simply must play it for research.

PC
7) Half-Life 2 – I had a pretty good run playing through this game until I got myself stuck under a pipe because I wanted to see if I could fit under there. It happens. Anyway, research!

DS
8) Rhythm Heaven – because i almost beat it when I borrowed it from Carlos, and had a super fun time with it!

8 Games in one summer, can I do it?

Personal Blog

Banana Tortilla

So I’ve been in my new apartment for a few days, but my stuff won’t get here until tomorrow. Thus, being left with my cast iron skillet, my travel/camping spice kit, a banana and some corn tortillas, this delicious treat was created…

Ingredients:

1 banana
2 corn tortillas
cinnamon
honey
vegetable oil

1) Drizzle some oil on the cast iron skillet and heat it up, medium-high
2) Slice the banana and throw the pieces on the skillet; sprinkle pieces with cinnamon
3) After about 30 seconds, flip the banana slices and sprinkle cinnamon on the other side
4) Remove banana slices and divide between two corn tortillas. Drizzle with honey and fold the tortillas over
5) Heat the banana-filled tortilla on the skillet, about 15 seconds each side.

Enjoy!

As for other updates, I LOVE my apartment in Burbank. Love it! It is so beautiful, and the area is filled with fragrant flowers, and the view outside my sliding patio door is so pretty and placid. I’ve already set up an herb garden and printed out a few of my Phipp’s photos to hang on the wall.

Once I get all my belongings in and set up, I will be keen on visitors for sure. I start work on Monday: excitement!