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Fun Challenge Reminder

By ana (Fri May 22, 2009 at 05:27:26 PM EST) Fun Challenge, FFC (all tags)

and some other things.

Tick, tick.Though I'm sure you're aware by now that whining about extensions to the deadline is part of what puts the F in FC.

Still, do try to aim for the August 1, 2009 goal.

For myself? I'm not sure I have an idea yet. Or rather I have about six half-baked ideas.

Uh, what else?

At work, we decided we might, after all, be able to reconcile several disparate sets of measurements from 1997, with each other, and with a new insight into the physics of x-ray reflection and what a surface contaminant would do. Which meant dusting off old tcsh and perl scripts last known to run in 1999, chasing down broken tools and fixing them, cranking bunches of data, this time with serious attention to what-all we think we know about calibrations, and we'll see.

I'm now 12 pages into a memo describing what I did since February, and I haven't gotten to the results section yet. I hope to finish it before...

Vacation! I'll be off starting next Thursday, hoping to work on writing and other very non-data-related things. Then for the first week in June we'll be in Key West, soaking up the sun, heat, and salt water.

I note in passing that Iain Pears seems to have released another one of his complicated, multi-time-period, novels, Stone's Fall. Probably worth waiting for the paperback, but almost certainly worth the read. I absolutely loved both An Instance of the Fingerpost and Scipio's Dream.

And when I get back, perhaps I shall begin re-developing those guitar callouses I lost a few years ago.

And, uh, reading a metaphorical stack of proposals for a review.

< Hell of a week. | The City and the Stars >

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Fun Challenge Reminder | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

Good luck with the 10-year old perl. by dark nowhere (2.00 / 0) #1 Fri May 22, 2009 at 06:51:54 PM EST

Back then perl 4<->5 incompatibility was a relevant topic. I hope you don't have to worry about that. ("Old perl scripts", as much as I like perl, is a scary enough thought to begin with.)

Protein Pills: Taken.
Helmet: On.

FFC by Scrymarch

(4.00 / 1) #2 Sun May 24, 2009 at 09:04:58 AM EST

So close to FFS, maybe it should be F2C1 :)

Have been thinking about revisiting an abandoned draft from the crime one, WFC8.

Also missed the SWFC, not sure what to go for. I don't enjoy being fashionable; maybe something laissez-faire. Maybe I should read a Thatcher speech and give DullTrev an aneurysm, if he's still reading. Or maybe a poem, though I don't read enough to really pick one.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}

F2C1 by Kellnerin

(4.00 / 1) #3 Sun May 31, 2009 at 05:14:44 PM EST

would be a perfect occasion for revisiting/updating the bird flu MFC.

I'd love to see your crime story. Or, on the SW side, there was speculative talk about doing the WFC audio book. I doubt we'd ever get the complete collection done, but the mish-mash FC seems to be the time to cross-pollinate like this. Or you could do a dramatic reading of "Sparrow's Wings" (there I am back at bird flu again).

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

I like the idea of mish mash entries by Scrymarch

(2.00 / 0) #4 Tue Jun 02, 2009 at 10:02:36 AM EST

Like you say, this one seems particularly well suited to it, like the wfc audio book ... I am personally unmusical, so no melodious porcine sequels to the bird flu mfc are to be expected from this front.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

could always do by Kellnerin

(2.00 / 0) #5 Tue Jun 02, 2009 at 07:12:06 PM EST

the definitive H1N1 comic ...

Since all previous themes and all media are fair game, my first inclination was to do a story based on one or more of the Photo themes (like "Geometry"), but now I'm currently playing around with something different.

I think it was in a holiary of dark nowhere's where there was speculation about (a) taking a Programming FC theme as the basis for a something in one of the other, more "creative" formats, or (b) using a narrative or other source material related to the other FCs to create some sort of interactive program. It should be noted that accepted formats on the upload site include application/x-shockwave-flash.

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

X-Pigs: Origins by Scrymarch

(2.00 / 0) #6 Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 10:50:44 AM EST

I like the flash idea. Interactive things are ... hard ...

There is a movie called the Double Life of Veronique, oblique Krystof Kieslowski thing. I feel like if someone could do a computer game like that, the form would finally have ... matured ... or something. It is one of those movies that I didn't strictly enjoy, but have rewatched it. It is haunting, or has pretty women, or something.

So while it would be insane to attempt anything like that for an *FC, if there was some way to have game short stories I think it would be cool.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

you're probably right by Kellnerin

(2.00 / 0) #7 Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 09:39:54 PM EST

Whole development teams take months if not years to build that kind of thing. I wonder if there's some way to write an engine that makes it easier to inject story (actually, I'm sure there is ... but even with an existing engine it would still be non-trivial to tell a new story).

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

I guess by Scrymarch

(2.00 / 0) #8 Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 09:59:43 PM EST

It was easier in the text adventure era. That has a retro appeal of its own.

I think you would have to use an engine of some kind to make it viable. Maybe a Quake map of the apocalypse WFCs, with a bird flu soundtrack ...
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

yeah by Kellnerin

(2.00 / 0) #9 Fri Jun 05, 2009 at 07:11:54 AM EST

I actually wrote for some MUDs back in the day. It's tricky to incorporate narrative into the world in addition to geography and mood. But I suppose you could code up something like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure with branching decision points.

I was also involved in a MMORPG based on a graphical engine where the builder did a great job creating a world that seemed to have real history -- but even with some scripting for NPCs you still needed interaction with other people to create real ongoing stories. It's easier to make an environment that enables that kind of storytelling than to make one with an inherent story that a single person can discover on their own.

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

I'm not surprised by Scrymarch

(2.00 / 0) #10 Sat Jun 06, 2009 at 10:10:26 AM EST

That narrative in games is hard, or that you wrote for them :)

I guess it is possible to do a kind of tribute / joke narrative, as in the Hamlet text adventure. I can also imagine a story like The Resurrection Men Hall Of Fame being translated into a virtual environment pretty easily. It helps that most of it is static.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

Hamlet text adventure by Kellnerin

(4.00 / 1) #11 Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 09:10:42 AM EST

Don't think I'd seen it before. Brilliant. Also reminds me of how frustrating the H2G2 Infocom game was.

It's definitely easier to draw directly on a known source and try to "translate" it -- that would potentially fall within the FFC mission statement as well (although it would probably take so long as to qualify for FFC2, whenever that is).

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

I never really got anywhere with the Infocom games by Scrymarch

(2.00 / 0) #12 Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 08:59:38 AM EST

I made it onto the Vogon ship and that was about it.
_{The Political Science Department of the University of Woolloomooloo}
[ Parent ]

: me neither by Kellnerin (4.00 / 1) #13 Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 06:18:08 PM EST

I got a little further than you did -- I made it to the Heart of Gold. Getting the Babel Fish was epic, but do-able by brute force. My poor preadolescent mind wasn't able to plumb the depths of the Infinite Improbability Drive, unfortunately.

--
"Late to the party" is the new "ahead of the curve" -- CRwM
[ Parent ]

Fun Challenge Reminder | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback