Note: This is a post highly similar to this one, but since our audience is completely different and I’d rather post it here than have people not follow the link, I hope Darius will forgive me. So…

Darius over at TinySubversions has a much more entertaining and detailed account of this little gaming fracas (go read it!), but in short: Gamasutra, a leading game website, publishes an article about Spelunky, an indie game garnering much critical praise.

Adam Coate, himself an indie developer, leaves a comment complaining that his game deserves more attention than Spelunky, and isn’t getting any.

Debate ensues, with commenters suggesting Adam should improve his attitude to improve his coverage.

Notably, a writer from indiegames.com tells Adam that he received Adam’s original e-mail about his game. However, the e-mail contained no helpful information (like links) to help him find, play and eventually cover the game. The writer came up with nothing even after searching exhaustively for it. He helpfully counsels Adam to learn a few things about marketing (and even eventually proceeds to write a guide to indie game marketing).

Adam keeps whining, eventually submitting the gem: “Miyamoto never had to work for press like this”.

(This is Shigeru Miyamoto, of Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Zelda fame).

Commenters in Darius’ account of this have a field day, and someone brilliantly comes up with an idea for a t-shirt.

I know I’m going to see this at gaming conventions and laugh my ass off.

So yesterday I was quite pissed off at Fido for charging me 599-799$ for an iPhone because I already have a service contract with them. If I was a new customer, the same phone would cost me 99$. I consider that a penalty for loyalty. (Screw the 65 Fido dollars I’ve accrued).

I was slightly disappointed to get out of work late tonight, for I planned on going to my local Fido boutique to (nicely and constructively) complain, but I knew it would be closed by the time I got there.

However, when I arrived past it, I saw that someone had driven their car right into the store (this is the one on Christophe-Colomb and Mont-Royal). The bumper was still in the shop window! Guess someone registered my complaint for me.

Dear Universe, if you really work like this, can I have a full team by February?

As in most RPGs, in Dragon Age (which is shit), you can decide what your character and his followers wear. This leads most gamers to see what their characters look like naked (ie. in underwear) at least once per game, and sometimes walk around in their medieval briefs.

Thus, a scene from Jonathan’s epic adventure. I particularly like the lad looking guiltily at the camera from the bushes.

Hi again,

After trying my hand at freelancing, I found that while it was a successful endeavor, it wasn’t really an enjoyable one. Although I saw people every day, they were never the same ones and I missed being part of a team and creating the bonds one does through repeated exposure. So after getting the freelancing curiosity out of my system, I became an employee of Ubisoft this year, and after helping complete and ship James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, I’m now producing my own project again.

I’d like to become more blog-active (ie. writing, but also reading and commenting) in the next year. My reasons for neglecting by blog all this time had mainly to do with the fact that readers increasingly call you on every half-baked opinion, requiring in-depth support for seemingly everything you say, and there’s always the possibility that some client or upper manager will find your half-baked opinions online. All this can be quite castrating. But what the hell. This space is mine, and after all, it’s opt-in for everyone else.

Here’s hoping you find it worth opting in.

- I’m making a Donatello costume.
- The Renaissance painter?
- No, the Ninja Turtle.
- That’s right, we’ve never talked about this… you have kids?
- No, it’s for my boyfriend.
- Ah, your boyfriend’s kid?
- No, my boyfriend.
- How old is he again?

The French word for these hottest days of summer, canicule, refers to the word dog. This is because the Dog constellation is visible throughout this period, and the dog’s eye, Sirius, is the sky’s brightest star at this time. Sirius is also the reason for the expression dog days. I haven’t seen it of late, but you can’t miss Jupiter which is very bright and high in the sky these days.

Someone wants to talk to you! I have a friend who’s working on a documentary on people in their 20s or 30s who haven’t left their parents’ home yet.

If that’s you and you’d like to share your story, please comment here or e-mail juliekgirard@gmail.com.

Jonathan mentions today that the Wii Fit has yielded some impressive results in our household, but not really in the manner it was designed for. Ever since I got it in January, it’s replaced my scales for near daily weigh-ins not only because it’s more accurate, but most importantly because it automatically keeps track of things graphically.

As you can see from the slight downward trend at the beginning of this graph, simply getting into the habit of keeping track of my weight with the Wii caused me to lose a few pounds without significantly altering my usual routine (regular gym exercise, eat whatever crap I want). Then in April, I built a healthy meal plan* for Jonathan who wanted to diet, and decided I might as well follow it myself. This coincided with a rush at work and therefore a stop to my regular exercise routine. So my routine became no gym exercise, but eat no crap… and I lost 10 pounds.

I believe the moral of this story isn’t “diet is more important than exercise”, as sticking to this diet-only, no-gym routine would inevitably lead to a weight rebound. Rather, this experience has confirmed for me that: 1) it’s possible to feel full and truly enjoy eating, while maintaining a textbook BMI of 22. 2) Mixing the routine up can really get you over your plateaus.

Now to start exercising again…

* More on the specific diet plan later.

Got to St. Peter’s in the early morning, and without waiting, made it into the grandest church in Italy. It was spectacular simply by virtue of its the sheer size. I’ve seen big churches with little chapels off to the side, this had big churches off to the side. After exploring the tombs of countless saints and popes, I got the guidebook out to see if there wasn’t some famous art somewhere in here. Oh yeah! Michaelangelo’s Pietà. Paused for a second in the spot where Charlemagne was crowned, then moved on back into the sunlight.

Stood in line 55 minutes to get into the Vatican museums, whose sole feature of interest to me was the Sistine Chapel. Going through the museum to the chapel, even by the most direct route, is an exercise in human herding, sweat and anticipation. The multicultural crowd jostles cattle-like through majestic corridor upon majestic corridor, each time thinking the Chapel is next, barely noticing the world-class works all around. Only exception to this for me: Raphael’s rooms, where I was excited to see one of my favorite paintings of all time, the huge School of Athens, in which all the great minds of Antiquity are reunited: Plato, Aristotle, Euclid…

At long last the human wave emerged into the Sistine Chapel. Although the sweat-march and its preceding 55-minute wait in the sun had ensured everyone was properly subdued and exhausted, I conjured some awe at the ceiling and at Judgment Day. The latter is a huge fresco wherein the dead are torn from their graves to face the maker, intended to scare you into obedience. I’m sure I would have been humbled if not surrounded by German tours.

Upon emerging I admit I rejoiced at the thought that my to-see list was now completed. I could spend the rest of my Roman stay sitting in the shade nursing my blistered feet.

I’d been warned that the Vatican would make me “vomit in my mouth” a little considering the difference between its opulence and Jesus’ life. I have to say, though, that every time I’ve seen a ridiculous, over-the-top site, be it Versailles, Borobudur, Hagia Sofia or even the Vegas strip, part of me has been happy that someone had the nerve, the vanity, the impracticality, the recklessness (and yeah, sometimes the faith) to build it. I’m glad extreme places like these exist, though yes, I’m glad they’re rare.

Today was marble day. The house of Octavian (emperor Augustus), the Senate, the Vestal virgin houses, the Colosseum (frankly overhyped), and countless arches and temples. The Romans had lots of gods, and Octavian had an impressive hippodrome adjoining his house (but no Wi-Fi).

Lunched at a trattoria, apprehensively watching a ray of sun the width of the alley slowly creeping towards me. Right before it reached me, I was getting ready to move on but the waiter brought me a glass of cold white wine on the house. I can make an exception today and let myself roast a little, I thought. My new friend kept refilling my glass, and I kept reading and writing well beyond the point when the sun had come and gone, several hours.

In my sunblasted euphoria, my mood seemed to have ranged from the metaphysical to the stupid, judging from my notes.

“Old man smoking pipe on Vespa hilarious!

Older religions think everything always starts all over again. Christians see time going in a direction.

I hate that my left brain never shuts up. I love that the manhole covers in Rome still say SPQR.

Everywhere you go in the world outside n america the coffee’s great and there’s soccer on TV

After 3 days I still don’t know if I go in the Signore or the Signori. Neither seem to have urinals.

Tomorrow, the Vatican. Be nice if God talked to me.”

Great price to quality ratio, those hours. I even got a tan in the bargain.