Category Archives: Expositions

Anything found here is something that I feel is worthy of my attention, and therefore something that I feel can be shared with others. Sharing knowledge and new experiences has served our race well over the last 100 000 years, so why stop now?

Defining Shepard – Part 1

Posted on by
1

Serendipity is a beautiful thing.

When I woke up Wednesday morning the day was looking up; it was my first day off in quite some time and I rejoiced at the thought of being able to sleep in, have a nice lunch for a change, and maybe even spend a couple of hours up-side-down on a couch reading a book (my preferred reading position). In the space of six hours I received two phone calls that would change everything: someone had broken street-date on Mass Effect 2, allowing me to convince the girl behind the counter at EB to hand my copy over “nice and slow-like”; and the framers had worked their magic on my lithograph over two weeks ahead of the expected schedule. One 15 minute journey later and my addiction had reached a beautiful critical mass.

Critical Mass Effect Mass Effect Signed Lithograph

In the months since December of last year I have immersed myself so deeply within the world of Mass Effect, in preparation for the prodigal sequel, that it has started to affect me on a fundamental level. Just the other day I legitimately pondered the required energy to significantly remove the gravitational influence of a pulsar, and began a rough calculation until reality came creeping back into the foreground of my thoughts. I dare say it will not be long before I start demonstrating the positions of known Mass Relays at the Planetarium and am subsequently fired for the preaching of gross falsehoods. I listen to the soundtrack to the first game whilst reading the novelised prequels, and when I shut my eyes I sometimes inadvertently visualise the spinning Mass Relay loading screen.

The degree to which this game has entrenched itself into my cortical lobes gives us the context we need to continue. You see, every time I search for Mass Effect on the Internet, read about it in a press release or through one of my many aggregated RSS feeds, or even talk about it with other sapient beings, something strange happens. I get confused and disoriented! All of a sudden, the world has turned topsey-turvey and I grasp blindly as my brain tries to piece my shattered world back together.

To the rest of the world,

Shepard looks like this

Which is confusing because for me,

Shepard looks like this

The blatant identity crisis would be understandably crippling for Shepard herself (himself?), yet somehow I find myself thinking for her whenever confronted with this discontinuity. Seeing a male Shepard is like looking into a mirror and seeing someone else’s face staring back, even though the face is an avatar for an imaginary character. There is no logical reason why it should unnerve me so much, and yet I find it physically distressing to see “John” Shepard conversing with the Normandy’s crew instead of “Jane”.

While I applaud BioWare for their efforts in creating a game that is (largely) gender-independent in terms of character interaction and development, I find it incredibly interesting to note how severe my reactions are to resulting conflicts created in both the game’s advertising and general public discourse. The role of gender in a games avatar is a topic for another day, but for now I would love to know:

Do you ever find yourself identifying with a specific portrayal of a character in games, books, film, etc.?

Have you ever encountered this alienation when encountering a non-idealised version of these characters?

I would love to hear your comments below!

Discourse

Posted on by
Reply

discussion
Creative Commons License photo credit: the|G|™

In this most recent binge of bettering myself I have been mustering up the motivation to do some of the things I wish I did more often. This can be shown in the fact that I have now run Jacob’s Ladder twice this week and fully plan on a third assailing of that mocking dastard this Friday. While this has temporarily halted my attempts at starting Tai Chi for purely physical limitations (namely my complete inability to hold a low horse stance without my calves deciding that this is a monumentally stupid idea and leaving), I truly believe that they both work towards a common goal.

This, however, has nothing to do with what I wish to talk about today.

I read, on average, 5 – 6 small essays every day from the various vestiges of the Internet. Some are aggregated courtesy of my compulsion to add every RSS feed ever into my google reader account. Some are linked to me in posts made by those same subscriptions. Some fall out of Wiki-loops and some even appear as a legitimate part of my studies. I often save these articles, or leave the tab open in my browser of choice until it reaches a sort of critical mass and they all collapse to form… well… a memory error. I do this because  I often want to link them here and comment about them, but this is always a cop-out on what I really want to do; I want to write the articles. So, I am going to make a concerted effort over the next couple of months to knock out a decent quality mini-essay per week. The first is definitely going to be about Communication, hence the post title. Peel an eye for that one.

In the meantime, fantastic things I have found on the internet that will allow me to close some tabs!

All credit goes to Phill for finding this one, but he didn’t post about it so I will. This is one of the most emotional and amazing videos I have ever seen. I just wish I could save it somehow.

Keeping it real with my boys in the Astro community, I should point out that this was actually discovered by an amatuer Aussie astronomy outside of Canberra. He forwarded it onto NASA who were very glad that he did so, as you can read.

Else, in the land of Astro, the Lunar Recconeissance Orbiter has spotted some pretty lucky shots on it’s way to… well… do what it did before it got there!

Any audiophile worth his salt would jump at the chance to have been this lucky. A tour of the Dolby labs is my idea of the best first date ever! In all seriousness, however, if you ever wondered what makes one sound better than another, have a quick read of this article. Sound is very much like wine…

Finally, a sneak peek into my first mini-essay, this one in particular inspired me more than most I read on a daily basis. Not long now before Internet kills the Video Star.

Discipline

Posted on by
1

betty page stencil?
Creative Commons License photo credit: duncan

After yet another successful annual trip to Prevelly, I have found myself in a pre-metamorphic state. The trip itself consisted what anyone would expect from a bunch of university students desperately clinging onto the last shreds of their sanity post-exams. Discussions of philosophy, the preparation of gourmet delicacies, and meditations of self worth. Also, drinking.

In all seriousness, I have decided I require more discipline in my life. I have decided that Tai Chi will do as a viable substitute. I will attempt to update on how this is going, however one thing I would like to investigate is the possibility of blending some of the movements of Tai Chi into Fencing, possibly improving balance and reaction times. Food for thought, that is for sure. On the topic of food, I have no doubt that a post will be up very soon at my second favourite food blog, detailing the scrumptious exploits of one of the best amateur chefs I know. Let this man anywhere near fresh marron and I assure you that what follows will leave you a husk of a man who’s digestive tracts have transcended to a higher plane. Yes, it is that good.

My own escapades in that realm were met with kind words of their own, a heart 1.6kg slab of quivering meat marinated in one of my own concoctions and slow roasted over 4 hours to something that closely resembles perfection. While I feel it could have been rarer for my tastes, with the quality of the kitchens in these small cedar cabins I believe the results exceeded expectations. The marinade, however, was my real victory here. The base constituents of this culinary alchemy were maple syrup, vinegar, Cajun peppers and lime zest. Not what anyone would call traditional, in fact some have expressed their abhorrence at this aberration, yet the combination has merit beyond comprehension. I can only ask you save your vitriol until after you have let me cook it for you.

Segue: Speaking of food and discipline, I have noticed recently that while I have a fantastic espresso machine that I use every day (hourly is probably a better term) I have not yet once used the milk steamer attachment. This is primarily because I am a lazy person, and I like to be able to consume the caffeine part of the coffee as quickly as possible, such that I can get back to my addiction of the moment. Today I broke that particular trend and I must say that it is something I should do more often. For little extra effort my caffeinated beverages could be much nicer; I am simply just too lazy. All this, however, shall change very soon.