Tilting at windmills for a better tomorrow.
Hah! Came home from work today and was greeted by Miles in his new Tae Kwon Do ghee gi. Had his 2nd lesson today and so far he’s doing great. If you see him, be sure to ask him to show you some “rad moves!”
And remember, a bow is a sign of respect.
I’ve written a few times over the years about Spore, the new life-cycle simulation game by Will Wright (creator of The Sims), with spontaneous/generative music by Brian Eno. The game’s release is now just a couple of months away, and Maxis have released the Spore Creature Creator in advance, so users can get started creating a library of bizarre land, water, and air-borne beings. Luckily for us, the game’s many delays have given Miles just enough time to grow up enough to start appreciating basic concepts of evolution, and to become comfy with a mouse.
Just spent the bulk of a cold grey summer morning playing with the Creature Creator, and my jaw is on the floor. Spore manages so much complexity behind such a simple and intuitive interface. Performance is superb, movement is silky smooth, and the creative possibilities are endless. Working mostly by himself, Miles created HasEverything, Headfeathers, Aquaboogie, and Ezra. This is Ezra:
Yep – in test drive mode, you can build short movies and upload them directly into YouTube, without leaving the game. The resolution here isn’t great, but inside the game, both creatures and settings are stunningly beautiful.
If we’re having this much fun with just the creature editor, I can only imagine what the actual game is going to be like.
Miles’ 6th birthday just three months away, today he informed us of his plans for a robot party:
No prob, Miles. We’re on it :)
Sorry it’s been so quiet around here for a while. One of the busiest stretches in memory. This summer:
– Three Knight Digital Media Center workshops
– Rains-it-pours freelance workload
– Old friend Rinchen back from three years in monastery; hosted big party
– Old friends Will and Sage back from three years in Australia; hosted big party
– 25th high school reunion (coming up)
– Work crazy as always
– Week in Minnesota with Amy’s family (just returned)
Minnesota: Rolling hills and lush wetlands. Summer thunderstorms. Nieces and nephews and grownups. Golf and tennis on the teevee. Floating down Minnehaha Creek on our backs. Geocaching in warm rain. Mosquitos, mosquitos. Orange Julius Jamboree. Steaks and burgers. Solo bicycle trek in the afternoon heat, through the woods and around the lakes, stashing bike in woods while hunting geocaches (hint: mark location of hidden bike on GPS to find it again later easily). Set mother in law up with new 20″ iMac. Ultimate Frisbee in the cul de sac with extended family, finally understand concept of blocking+interception, which I can apply next time I try to watch football or basketball. Blown away watching nine-yr-old niece navigate her social network like lightning. Puzzled by mall culture; impulse to “shop” without going to buy something in particular. Minnesota Museum of Science to see Star Wars exhibit. Read Zora Neal Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” – amazing, moving. Fireflies. Reeds and rushes. Fish tacos. Humidity sweat, well water, sprinklers sputtering in the dusk. Idly strumming ukulele on the porch. Total recharge, much needed.
Amy and Miles are on vacation (I’m joining them in a few days), and I’ve been getting regular emails from Miles (he dictates them to Amy). His imagination blows my mind. Here’s a sample:
You know what? Last night when me and Jon were playing soccer, and we were playing a different kind of soccer. When someone, I mean, just someone puts on a disguise, so the person, I mean the other person, thinks you’re like a tree or something, so they try to kick the ball, but then the person jumps out of their disguise, and then, the person kicks the ball. I love you 100 times. HA! YEA! I hope you turn into a duck, so you can swim to Minnesota, and then turn back into a person, so you can be my dad again. Anyway, I hope you think of cuckoo songs and play funny games like smooshing a ball into your ear and then pulling it out the other side. And I hope you climb to the top of the state temple and eat the moon up, so me and my master Patrick can punch a hole in a boat, so the captain will sink, and they will blast out the other side of the state temple. That’s all.
I love you, and I hug you, and I smoosh you, and I beat you up in a really perfect way that might look like I’m cleaning you up with a soapy sponge. I love you. Goodbye, see you next time.
After a waffle breakfast with friends, spent Father’s Day with Miles and Amy at Redwood Regional Park, hiking down to the valley floor to get up close and personal with giant old growth redwoods. Not quite Muir Woods scale, but utterly spectacular. Found a small handful of geocaches along the way, including one locked deep inside a cow femur, which just added to the “dinosaurs have walked this path” atmosphere of the day. At one point near the valley floor, just a few dreamy rays of light were left penetrating to the forest floor. Miles started to get scared, convinced there were ghosts in the trees. Ascending 1,000 feet or so out of there was a much-needed workout, rewarded with eventually walking up and out of the canopy into broad daylight.
Later quenched our appetites at a local sushi bar — a landmark moment for us to be able to go to a restaurant without a kids menu. Stuffed myself on crab and avocado, then chili-infused dark chocolate (didn’t get the chocolate-covered ants I had wanted, but lightly salted Aztec Chili chocolate tiles are complex and dreamy). A glorious day. I love my family.
Amazing day with family yesterday. Up early to join a friend of the family for a two-hour tour of San Francisco Bay on his sailboat. Miles first time sailing, and I hadn’t been on a sailboat in years. Perfect blue sky, 15-knot winds, and a chance to re-learn the difference between a jib and a jibe, a tack and a hank. What a way to start a weekend. Thanks Louis B.! Flickr set, includes a little video of Amy at the helm.
After a quick BBQ lunch, off to the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art for matinee performance of Thundermouth, part of the 6th Annual Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival. Thundermouth was an idea Matthew had had when he was alive – to roll out a giant sheet of butcher paper and let members of the audience write improvised poems. The band, also improvising, would then have one or more singers singing the lyrics as fast as they could be written – sort of improv karaoke. Great to see this idea of Matthew’s finally made real, and a perfect concept for a kids’ matinee. Flickr set here. We still miss you Matthew!
Later, perfected my orange julius recipe.
File under Truth Is Stranger: A couple of months ago Miles’ viking helmet got busted — right around the time we had to replace the video inverter in Amy’s monitor. Naturally, the broke inverter ended up attached to the broke helmet, along with a few lights and some pipe cleaner. Miles called it “The Brain Great-iator,” because it allegedly makes your brain greater (unconfirmed).
Separated at birth? Miles and Steve Carrell
Then last month’s Wired mag hit the stands, with cover story 12 Hacks That Will Amp Up Your Brainpower, featuring Steve Carrell sporting a grown-up version of Miles’ own invention.
Michael Scott is going to get so sued.
Amy: “If your face starts to go slack, you let me know – that’s the sign of a brain aneurysm.”
Miles has been building “projects” at home for so long that I’ve become used to coming home and finding a creation like this one almost completely blocking the door. We step over assemblages of Lego, Playmobil, wooden blocks, trains, Star Wars figures, beanbag chairs, and stuffies like they’re part of the furniture. He’ll spend hours hunkered down, working out every detail (this one wasn’t as detailed as many of them are, though plastic animals later decided to have a party in the “house,” each animal getting a party favor and positioned according to its ability).
His structures take over the living room, dining room, play area, back yard (the second one pictured was a Rube Goldberg device to get a plastic ball from the top of a ramp into the wire catch-frame at the bottom, apparently inspired by the giant mousetrap he saw at Maker Faire). We adjust our walking patterns to his architectural indulgences. Signs of OCD, but in a good way. As he gets older, his projects become less random, more structured, often with a story behind them (generally indiscernible until interviewed). But at the same time, the story lines are becoming a bit more realistic, less surreal. His description of this one was very matter-of-fact:
It’s a seven-story house and it has doors and windows like all houses do and it has a draw-bridge, a garage and a swimming pool in the middle. And 16 animals live in there. I forgot their names. And it has a ladder to get up to the drawbridge. And it’s not painted.
Someday we’ll put together a compendium of his annotated projects. Coffee table book?