June 22

Happy birthday to everyone whose birthday is June 22!

Madoka and Human Life and Values

So, after a lot of questions on whether or not I've finished Madoka, the guys from the anime club finally barged into my house with cords, hooked up a laptop to my tv and played the whole series.  It was a good time, and I enjoyed the show.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

There're a lot of things you could talk about when discussing the show:
How do you like the artwork?  Isn't Kyubey (creature in the middle of above pic) just so cute?  Who's your favorite character?
Or maybe...  Best show of the season?  How about that storyline?  A wish that can grant you anything?  They didn't really deal with the wishing for more wishes or other ridiculous things like that.  I wonder what they would have added if they had more episodes...
Or, what if you analyze the deeper questions raised by the show?  Use this story as a lens to look at some difficult questions about human life and values?  Sounds like an English class?  I thought so too (not that I'd know, coming out of an engineering college).  It's what I'm going to consider in this post.  You might not want to read more if you haven't seen Madoka yet and you don't want to spoil just about everything.  But come on, who (else) would not have seen it yet but still be planning on seeing it eventually?

My Definition of Strength

Not physical strength, mental strength.  The strength to withstand all the troubles you encountered.  The strength to live through suffering and fight through pain.  But it was more than that.  It was about doing it for the sake of others.

Emotions from the past

Not that I ever was a very emotional person, but I suppose I used to let myself feel emotions more strongly.    People would say, "Wow!  Look at that guy doing DDR on Heavy!" and I would want to say, "That's only a 7-footer, I can do 10 foot songs, backwards even!"  Of course I would never actually say that, but I'd always want to.  People would say they're smart and I would think, "Man, if you're going to just call yourself a genius, you're probably not that smart."  I hated it when people who weren't that good at things bragged about themselves, or other people talked so much about them, when I could easily be better and they might never recognize me.

I used care more if I won or lost too.  You probably think, "Everyone wants to win," and yeah, I used to too.  I used to let myself be bothered by more things.  I used to care more about people getting what they deserved.  (Not that I ever knew what that was.)  Basically, I was just a totally different person.

Character Description 1

I need a name for this character. (And all other characters too.  Yeah, I hate coming up with names.)  If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave them as a comment.

She could usually be found sitting alone somewhere, staring off into the distance.  It was as if her expression was one that always gave off the impression that she was slightly annoyed at something.  Perhaps she just preferred being alone; she seemed to hate being disturbed by others.

Game Design: Platformer

I've had this idea for a platform game for a while: basically something like Super Mario Bros., but the key feature would be some kind of change of speed button.  You hold the button, and your character moves at double speed or half speed (or perhaps have a button for each).  Not just walking/running speed, but jump speed, falling speed; all movement would be affected.  And then there'd probably be a double jump feature, or maybe even triple jump, so that a designer interested in making some really complex and challenging levels could have some fun.  What could this change of speed feature add?

Likes, Preferences, and Opinions

What do I like?  Let's see...  What I like...  Um...

Uh...

          er...

                   hmm...

                                      well...

                                                              If it were taking the experimental pressure calculations from sound waves in a well controlled setting and using Hankel transforms to compute horizontal wavenumber spectra for the purpose of improving methods of modeling underwater acoustics then maybe I could answer but this is just so hard and it does not compute-

Error!  Error!  *Robot Daniel explodes.*

I won't judge you on it

Among true anime fans, if you like, say, Naruto, you're obviously a casual.  Among the hardcore fighting game fans, if you came in on the newer games like SSF4, you're a noob.  Oh, but just liking anime is enough to make you a weeaboo, whatever that is.  Being a hardcore videogamer at all is kind of... nerdy.  You wear glasses?  Like math and science?  You must be a geek.  You didn't get an A on the test, idiot?  You got an A, nerd?  Bum with no job?  Rich snob making a lot of money?  And let's not even go to religion and politics.  So, who are you, and what do you like?  Tell me, because I won't judge you on it.