Friday, February 12, 2010

Escape Hatch

DeeLux is dead. I liked the title Daedalux, not because it's particularly witty or deep - it isn't - but because it was unique. Once upon a time if you googled daedalux this blog and it's affiliated links were the only results you'd ever get. Not so anymore. Now it's practically a semi-popular handle. After spending over a year abroad, I've returned home to discover searches revealing everything from others using the title in fields ranging from commenters in the Huffington Post to a Spanish language porn site. I can assure you these people are not me. I can only assume these persons to be misguided sycophants attempting to cash-in on the wild popularity this blog has enjoyed over the years :P

Regardless, my unique identity must not be sullied. I have chosen a new - and infinitely more unique title to resume my blogging. And in the highly improbable instance that someone out there still actually checks this blog I've chosen to link it here. If you would like to read it please follow the link. If you're looking for a cool name for a porn site, kindly look elsewhere.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Dr. Horrible

When I first heard Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, was starting a mock video-blog starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day I knew I would watch it. When I heard that it was a musical called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog I quickly changed my mind. Nothing against the project (if that's what he really wanted to do) but I doubted it was for me.

After I saw the preview (below) I figured I'd at least give it a try. I'm surprised and glad I did. I can easily say - it's hands-down the greatest sci-fi/musical sing-along blog ever created. And it's absolutely worth watching too.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Spore

I've finally had a chance to try out the free Spore Creature Creator download and I've got to say it's entertaining. It really doesn't show what gameplay itself will be like - but it's fun to make a creature and animate it. Here's a picture of my very first creation:

FYI - the trial version is free, but for $10 you can upgrade to the full Creator. It has more options, i.e. appendages, and presumably a few more bells and whistles. The full-game comes out in September - my anticipation is only growing.

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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

3 Questions

When I was a kid, one of my favorite movies was a Jim Henson classic called Labyrinth. It was a fun bit of fantasy starring a young Jennifer Connelly as Sarah and David Bowie as the crooning Goblin King. In particular there was a riddle in that movie I always liked because of its simple clever solution. I'm referring to the part when Sarah comes to a place in the maze where she must choose between two doors: one that leads to the castle, and one that leads to - certain death ~ dun-dun-DAH! There were two guards - one who only spoke the truth and one who always lied - and she had just one chance to ask the right question and discern which door was which . . .
"What would he say if I asked him . . ?"
It's one of those riddles you memorize because deep down you secretly suspect that you might find yourself in a similar situation and would hate to be without that quick, potentially life-saving interrogative. For decades a tiny segment of my brain was devoted solely to preserving this snippet of arcane logic. So when I was greeted with the following riddle I was positively giddy with anticipation when I heard, "one who only tells the truth and one who always lies . . ." At last! I was a lion hiding in the tall grass - ready to pounce. I would wipe that smug smile off the face of my foolish inquisitor (which happened to be a computer, but it was being smug.) How dare it challenge me with such a simple riddle! But then I heard the rest of the riddle and my euphoria swirled into surprise and confusion.
"I know this one! . . . I, uh . . . just gimmie a sec . . . um . . . lemme get out some paper. . ."
And here I am, twelve hours later, finally victorious yet still unable to sleep. After wrestling with this puzzle all day I feel I need to pass it along before I can let go of it. So here is my version of what is perhaps the hardest riddle I've ever solved:

In the old temple are three great oracles who can divine the answer to any question. One of the oracles always speaks the truth, one always lies, and the third spouts only random nonsense. Because they are truly great oracles, they understand any language, but being the esoteric mystics they are, they choose to answer questions only in their own inscrutable language. When asked questions they always reply with ‘ja’ or ‘da’ - meaning either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but nobody knows which means ‘yes’ and which means ‘no’. Whenever a petitioner asks a question he or she must choose an oracle to address and only that oracle responds. Even worse, each petitioner may not ask more than three questions in total. The challenge is to identify which oracle is which.
Hints

Friday, February 29, 2008

Return of the Blog


I'm making some leap-year resolutions. It's a list things I plan to accomplish within the next four-years. Next February 29th I'll review my list and gauge my success. Reviving this blog isn't a specific item on the list, but it's still part of the type of changes I'd like to make. My close friends (both of you) have been clamoring for me to return to this blog, and I admit I've missed writing in it. I've kept deluding myself, hoping things will settle down soon so I can start doing the things I should be doing, but I know things are never going to settle down. That's life - but it's no excuse. I need to redevelop the discipline of just doing what I need to do in spite of - because of - the chaos that is ordinary life. I'm going to live my list. My list isn't exactly easy, or even entirely reasonable, but it's exactly what I need.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

It's not easy being Chad

It's never easy being a manager in a grocery store - just ask Chad. Everyone thinks he's a bad guy, but he's just misunderstood. Of course it might help if he stopped wearing his Darth Vader suit to work every day, but hey - it's a free country.

Chad knows it's hard to be taken seriously as a Dark Sith Lord these days, but it's even harder to meet women. Be sure to check Chad's latest misadventures as: Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Tactical Retreat

Although I've abandoned my first attempt to write a short work of fiction in serial I'm going to attempt some political maneuvering and label it an abortive success. I somehow managed to motivate myself to write several other articles in my procrastinating on this project, so my open declaration to write a story did at least get me moving - just not in the proper direction. Mostly I'm just not happy with much in my first attempt, so I'll just fall back - regroup - and attack from another angle. I don't imagine anybody out there is too upset about my initial failure anyways, but I'll keep using this blog a vehicle for this experiment.

I intend to eventually post the new story I'm writing now, but I'll at least work out the majority of the details before I post the first installment. I'm discovering that I have to write it all down in order to really have something solid to think about, but then I have to think and sleep on it for a day or two before I can shape it into a halfway decent form. I'm still not overly concerned with quality - I don't expect to write wonderfully on my first go - but I at least want to be interested in the story I'm telling. I'm hoping to have at least the first few installments done soon, and hopefully that will put me far enough ahead of myself to start posting. And of course I'm telling you - my imaginary audience - all this just to keep myself motivated.