Ok, it's been quite a while since my last blog. No excuses...though if I had to, I blame a little birdie named Twitter. Anyway, I can't even begin to catch things up here on all that's been going on the past few months so I'm not even going to try. Still living in the Big Apple, still programming and learning, and still experiencing all that is life. Beyond that there's just too much to cover.
This weekend's packed full of stuff. Heading with my Trek group and my friend Olivera to see the new Star Trek movie tonight. Some skepticism over whether it'll stay both true to Roddenberry's vision as well as Trek canon*1 but I'm optimistic. New cast does look pretty good though, hope they realize just what a responsibility they're taking on:
After the movie I'm meeting my bro Jamie and Ally in Chinatown for a visit this weekend. They're leaving Sunday so we have way more to do than can justifiably fit in a single day. For that reason I cut the fat and have pieced together the following agenda for Saturday:
Attend a comedy show at the Times Square Arts Center (tickets already set.)
Random walking about Times Square, possibly a cafe stop.
Take the subway back to my neighborhood.
Head to Arriba Arriba for some allegidly great Mexican food.
Head home, play XBox or board games.
That's Saturday; there was more planned but it's simply not going to fit. I am thinking however Little Italy on Sunday, but we'll see. Then I have oodles to do Sunday night after they leave as I prepare to head back to Scranton Monday for the week. Meeting with lots of old friends there and much that will be done. Quite sure there will be a game night mixed in sometime too. Then next weekend is my uncle's wedding (57 years old and his first wedding!)
Busy times ahead.
Note 1 - I already have a list a mile long of discrepancies in the show, I'm really hoping not to add to much to it.
Halloween this year turned out pretty fun. I didn't quite make it to the parade (in-person anyway) and I didn't actually manage to get a costume but a good friend was over and we had a ton of fun, and isn't that really what it's all about anyway?
Tomika came by and we had some good Mexican food at the Mustang Grill. Then we enjoyed watching a classic horror/comedy flick, "Army of Darkness," starring the king of cult horror/comedy Bruce Campbell. Tomika hadn't seen it and I hadn't in a while so, of course, lots of fun. It was probably the perfect fit for the holiday. Then too we watched while hacking away at two hapless pumpkin victims. Neither of us had really done pumpkin carving before*1 (I had, but only when I was a wee tike.) I'm kind of shocked at how well the results turned out. Check 'em out for yourself,*2
Then on to the games: First thing we played was Fable II, another good fit for the holiday theme. The character interaction is kind of two-dimensional but the RPG elements are pretty good and it does keep you well-engrossed enough. I like the idea of separate "types" of experience points: magical beasts provide more magical XP, strong ones strength XP, and fast one agile XP. There's also the usual general-purpose XP. The graphics are superb (for the most part) and the colors/emotions it emanates are great. You get the feeling you're really in an old-style, childhood fable.
On top of all that you can get very much into your character's life and livelihood too: work, flirt, marry, and even have children. Eat too much and you'll put on the pounds, sleep with others unprotected and risk pregnancy (which is more so an issue if you're playing the game's new "female" character.) I'm even impressed they've got gay and bisexual NPCs in there as well. Overall it's a superb game and both Tomika and I really enjoyed it.
I cast my vote about an hour ago. The voting center here in Manhattan was surprisingly well-organized and efficient. I was in and out in less than thirty minutes. I'm kind of surprised they used the mechanical "lever" machines instead of the electronic ones but at least it was better than the last time I voted in Scranton, where we used (*gasp*) paper ballots.
My mood right now is calm and centered. I have almost no doubt of an Obama victory. I'm also completely confident he's the best choice (of the available possibilities that is; of course I'd preferKucinich or even better Al Gore.) I'm glad a respectable Republican like Powell decided to endorse Obama. I went to see "W." a week ago with Tomika and Powell was one of the few voices that made any sense in the whole flick. But far more importantly, my hero Leo Laporte is an Obama backer.
The more important issue for today is over California's Proposition 8, which could re-ban gay marriage in the state. Unlike the Obama thing, which I'm fully confident will go the right way, I'm not sure what'll happen with this. You've got powerful monetary backers on both sides: The Mormons and Christian right are backing the prop (which would re-ban gay marriage) and companies like Google and Apple have been actively opposing it (cheers to Google/Mac!) I guess we'll soon see.
Ok, I'm off to Rockefeller Center to watch the MSNBC team cover the election. Go Obama!
On an off-topic note...today's the release of the new D&D Futurama DVD movie. George Takei*1 (of Star Trek fame, but also in Heroes) plays himself in it. Another great personality, along with Gore and Hawking, to grace the series. ;-)
Note 1 - Takei also recently put an autobiography called "To The Stars" you should check out. I've got the audio book version from Audible and plan to listen to it as soon as I finish my current "read."
Ok, so I don't usually like to go all commercial on my blog but since this is pretty big for my bro I thought it warrants an exception...
My bro Jamie and two of his friends finally got a game that they made published by Apple on the iPhone. It's doing pretty well: currently has the highest score of any game in the App Store and is ranked #8 on the App Store's download page*1 (though it moves around a few spots daily.) The fan reviews left on the forum are also phenomenal.
The game's called FieldRunners, a tower defense game where you have to lay down forces to protect your base from waves of enemy attacks. I played it and it's really addictive. So if you know anyone with an iPhone (or iPod Touch), please tell them about it! It's only $4.99 to download...
(And yes they will be adding sound soon as well as additional levels.)
Note 1 - The 'Paid Game' page that is, overall it's somewhere around #14.
Ok, so you may have been wondering why my page has been sitting stale for the past month and a half. Short answer: I buggered up the NucleusCMS I run the site with and locked out my account (the *only* account by the way.) I couldn't log in, so I couldn't update or do anything. Really sucked.
Anyway, today I was finally able to repair the damage so this week I'll be able to start updating again...and, man, are there updates. For one, if you don't already know, I moved to New York City to work with a company called Rinasys. It's a C#.NET developer position working on financial software*1. The job is cool, the people I work with are great, and I'm learning a whole set of new things.
I ended up moving into a (very) tiny apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's pricey, but it's a quick train ride to work (which is in the Garment District) and the neighborhood is amazing. Even though the apartment's small it does have all I need: computers, books, game systems, television, bed, bath (in order of importance) so I'm more than content. Of course, the first two weeks were Internet-less and I felt I'd loose my mind but that's all worked out now. I'm actually really liking the city, far more than expected.
I've also been able to spend a lot of time with Tomika lately and it's been wonderful. I'm hoping to meet a lot more locals so I've been actively hitting up different groups: body mod community, joined a physics/astronomy group, a Star Trek and a Stargate group, a dodgeball league, math and programming groups...a lot. This week alone wil be pretty busy but should be a lot of fun.
Anyway, I'm just making this quick post to get everyone up to speed on things. Lots more I'm not even thinking to mention right now but since I can now blog again there'll be more to follow for sure. Stay tuned...
Note 1 - Due to the NDA I can't give any more details that that.
This isn't just of concern to the nations involved in the conflict: it should matter to EVERYONE. Even after all the disarmament that's been going on, the US and Russia still hold 96% of all the world's nuclear weapons*1 and they're the only two nations capable of targeting anywhere on the planet. Also, I'd like to point out, ironically enough as the world remembers the Nagasaki bombing, that today's nuclear weapons carry a payload that makes the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs look like mere firecrackers. Haven't we learned anything from video games...?
I often*1 wonder about where humanity is headed. What's the future of our species going to hold? Technological progress has far outpaced evolution in the recent few centuries. Our genetics and natural environment are no longer in control of us, rather, we control them (a potentially scary truth, I'll admit.)
Even though I occasionally sound skeptical about many of the ridiculous things mankind has done and continues to do there's no doubt that I'm a firm optimist. The future to me is promising, at least in so much as one accepts the inevitable changes to come to what we consider "normal."*2 I strongly believe that right now we're playing "catch up" with a technological environment we just weren't built for. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, in fact it's necessary in order to get us from there to where we need to be. The problem is that while we're in this transitional period, there's a lotofchaos and a wholelotofissues that need to be worked out. Assuming we survive this transition, and there's no good reason to say we won't, we'll end up in a place that can meet our needs far better than anything ever before.
Yesterday I took a walk around Lake Scranton and thought about what it will take to get us to that point. I asked myself, what are these things that humanity needs to tackle first in order to get there? After I identified a few critical things, I used futurist logic to follow these ideas to their inevitable conclusions.
I see thirteen big things coming. In the next few weeks I'll dedicate more detailed posts to each one since they're pretty involved ideas, but here's a quick synopsis of each:
Curing Death - Death not only represents the end to a sentient life but it also comes with a loss to the species as a whole. Life experience and knowledge constantly has to be retaught in order to replace those who've already mastered it so that it will remain when they pass on. Einstein died with unfinished papers on his desk; papers that to this day no one has been able to complete. Death costs us useful knowledge and can have a negative psychological impact on those who need to deal with it. For myself, death seems like an end to something that isn't finished yet. Death exists because biological systems fail but life can live on if all that makes up a being, "the essence of the individual," can be migrated into a new shell.
Colonization of Other Worlds - There are already too many people on this planet. If an asteroid hits right now, our species could be destroyed. And if death is eliminated (see above) things will get awfully cramped. As Stephen Hawking has said, survival of humanity requires us to colonize other worlds.
New Power Sources - Energy management is what drives us. Every level of growth in human civilization came with the advent of a new form of power. If we are to improve further we need to end our reliance on "primitive" combustible fuel sources and develop more efficient methods. Nuclear power is the most efficient form we are capable of today, with nuclear fission being the norm and experimental work like ITER heading to the first true fusion plant (fusion is both clean and more powerful if we can get it to work cheaply.) But even fusion isn't the most efficient theoretical means and until we reach the point where we produce far more power than our needs we still have a long way to go.
Birth of Artificial Intelligence - In one way, AI is possibly the single best way to accomplish everything on this list. Once we spawn the sentience of artificial minds, minds not limited by primitive organic brains, we open the doors to beings much smarter than us. Evolution indicates they will be our replacement, the next step in the evolution of intelligent life. What will happen to us "older models?" We will most likely "merge" with our children or become obsolete. This leads us into...
Merge With Machines - Cyber-organisms are the future. We're already doing primitive forms of it now: artificial limbs, artificial organs, mechanical attachments like hearing aids and pacemakers. This trend will continue until everyone is part machine. Why? Historically speaking, bad genes, those that affected people's ability to function, were not passed on because people often couldn't live long enough or there was a stigma attached. Today people with physical disabilities can lead happy, healthy lives*3. Our genes aren't being put through the rigors evolution usually prescribes so if we are to survive we will have no choice but to form a codependency relationship with mechanical components.
Custom Genetic Modification - Probably sooner than later in the coming millennium our genes will no longer be dictated by nature. Pharmaceutical companies are already patenting genetic sequences and some estimates say that as much 60% of your genetic makeup may already be owned by these companies. Scary as that might be, the future is one of banks where people can go in for cosmetic gene surgery: I work as a marine biologist and feel gills would help me do my job better so I pay some money to have my genetics altered on a deep genetic level (for acceptance) and on a more superficial level. My gills will then pass on to my children. Humans today are almost like genetic clones of each other by comparison to most other animal species but that's about to change: once we can start cosmetic custom manipulation of our bodies, "body modification" will go a lot deeper than a few piercings and tattoos and diversify humans into a gamut of unusual and interesting "mutants." With the man-machine merger, this means the future of humanity is cyber-humanoid mutants....pretty cool in my eyes anyway.
If you haven't already seen Matt Harding'sdance videos you should, they're really uplifting and fun to watch. The new 2008 video he just released is my favorite yet, as it's more than just Matt dancing, it's groups of people from all over just having fun. Seeing him dance with the tribesmen of Poria, Papua New Guinea and the women of Gurgaon, India is really great and of course I loved the zero-G Nellis Airspace scene. There's just something deep, powerful, and inspirational about watching these...
Of particular symbolic significance is when the group dancing is interrupted with a scene of Matt dancing alone (with a guard in the background) in Korea's demilitarized zone.
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