A couple of days ago I saw yet another episode of Lost and decided to give up on watching it !
I was pissed because some major character that I liked, died. It sucks.. but I see how this is good for the producers. They train spectators to get over killing off main characters, so that they don’t have to rely on some star that may become a bit too demanding one day. The hassle of being asked tons of money from an actor, trying killing its character off, and eventually having to succumb to the star’s requests.
Aside form killing off characters with ease, Lost tends to have too many loose ends (something that would certainly drive Lieutenant Columbo crazy ..those loose ends !). The writers throw in a lot of bones that may or may not eventually be used. Lots of weird stuff, actually lots of smoke.. on the last episode I watched I was well into the second season and there was still the “forest monster” thing lingering around… something yet to be seen, but that indirectly already made its appearance from the first episodes.
At this point I feel like I’ve been given the run around… and feel somewhat laughed about when in some episodes a good tracker (the story develops in some island with a large jungle) finds out that he/she is being followed, and walks around in circle for hours to make fun of the clueless follower.
The simplified formula of Lost is: pack lots of action and some bland sexual tension in the first episodes, then slowly shift more into character development, a lot of it, with detailed flashbacks, and once there is enough momentum, just keep rehashing old weird stuff, create new weird stuff, keep developing characters, kills some, find new ones.
I guess it works, but it’s become clear that the development is very dynamic. There isn’t a real story, the logic of all of it is weak and one is bound to be left with too many questions that have been brought up just to test waters, without any commitment to be solved from the authors.
ummmumm !
Posted by Davide Pasca as Uncategorized at 12:58 PM EDT
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This Friday I had some sort of milestone to meet. I worked until about 12:35, got the last train at 12:43 (was actually a few minutes late) and headed back home. Unfortunately the last train only took me to catch a coincidence for a line which had already stopped. I waited in line 5-10 minutes and eventually took a taxi home. Woo !
The milestone didn’t go as well as I wished. I planned to put a lot of eye-candy in this phase of the project, but there was a lot of stuff outside my sphere of knowledge. The shaders, the off-screen rendering, etc.. I had to figure out how it all works on the XBox 360, which uses the well known Direct3D, with some important variations which makes things a bit more complicated to achieve.
Particle systems are also a pain to build without a proper tool that makes one experiment with some standard parameters. One could code a physics accurate explosion with particles, but that would be way too heavy (and require a degree in particle physics 8). Many compromises have to be done for games, compromises imply tricks, tricks imply fine tuning alternative representations.. basically a lot of trial-and-error work, therefore the need for tools that allow one to play around with parameters.
I hope I’ll have the time to do things right. I hope that what I did so far is good enough to pass the milestone ! I certainly tried to add some interesting new effects. The 360’s pumped up hardware was quite helpful, as I could draft CPU heavy systems without worrying too much to optimize performance along the way.
Cool.. but lets switch to the hot topic ! “God makes them, then couples them”. That’s the rough English translation of the title of this post. It means that some people are meant to be together, generally intended with a negative meaning.
I once (about a year ago ?) had some sort of relationship with some girl. It was a complex story. I basically thought that she was interesting and I decided to see what would come out of it. To this day, it has been the most instinctive, spoiled and flirtatious girl that I’ve ever met. An explosive cocktail, a “floating mine” as a friend of mine used to describe her.
The story is very complicated and the girl was truly something… she used to tell me that she didn’t like me because I wasn’t tall enough, and because I wasn’t blonde (although she didn’t mind Africans at all..). She’d hang out with me and say “I wish I was with XYZ instead ! He was tall, blonde, intelligent, the best ! I would really want to meet him now !!”. Once she plainly told me “I don’t want your genes !”. hohoho that surely has a special place in the history of the most funny and stupid (and honest ? 8) things that I’ve ever heard from the mouth of a girl !
Talking about mouth, she was certainly very cute, but the smile was a bit problematic.. (my nickname for her was “Alien”… 8). I remember once she was bragging about trying to buy a present for her boyfriend (some fat guy that she took pictures of in his underwear and she would show around !!), instinctively I told her “Try brush your teeth !” …ehehe that was funny, for me and my Italian friend, as I actually said that in Italian. “what ?” …”nothing nothing 8)” (that was mean, but nothing compared to what she could say).
As it might appear, I do have some resentment towards her.. probably, but I blame myself. I got myself acquainted with someone I knew it was only bad news, because I wanted to learn about it ! I wanted to learn how can someone be like that, flirt with such ease, jumping from friend to friend, continuously talking about marriage, being so lovely one minute and so mean the next.
I learned a lot but it’s not easy to try to convey most of it.
Japanese culture surely has its part in generating troubled girls. Some are brainwashed into having to find some good man to marry. “Get your college degree and then get married”. Her problem is that, although pretty young, she could already speak English. That means that she had access to most foreigners to spoil her. Japanese men are generally not willing to take 1/10th of the bullshit that foreigners do. She surely knew that well, as her target were continuously somewhat needy guys. She needed leverage and that’s easy on a foreigner.
So ! Recently I learned that she got married, actually I learned that her marriage isn’t doing so good. Her husband is a some guy I used to cheer for as he tried to stay in Japan, at some point considered a friend, but that actually grabbed his “golden opportunity” and pursued her as he disappeared form my sight… perhaps thinking that I would hold a grudge on him for messing with some girl with whom I was somewhat involved. Well, certainly I would have appreciated a little more honesty. Considering that I practically was their cupid (I jokinly once told her about this guy that was coming to Japan and back then she said she would marry him ! ..talk about being selective.. geez !)
I remember describing her to him and he’d say “Davide ! You can change her !!”, wtf ?! Forget it, I’m not going to try brainwash someone like that. She’s beyond hope ! Plus, anyone that can make such a 180 degrees turn, isn’t a very stable person…
Apparently he didn’t trust me, he believed that he would be able to change her and live happily everafter. Now I hear that the marriage quickly went sour. She ran off, and her parents asked him out of the house (wtf #2 ?!).
I remember that girl talking about marriage and all those other things with me. One day I met her and she had in the purse the paperworks for getting married to her current boyfriend (not the fatty one, that was only later). It was all so nuts, and for a nut job like that, there had to be some university-educated, super-gullible, somewhat tall, blonde (more or less) guy that would actually go for it !
I was right, it was good to get involved with her, she showed me some amazing things !
Sorry for the guy. I hope he learned the lesson.. ! He certainly isn’t going to get much active support from this side though.
Welllll.. funny how I learned about all this the day after that I met a nice girl !! It’s like, somehow someone took care of padding the floor with a pillow just right before I’d fall off my chair !
Also I would like to specify that I had no intimacy with the girl in question. Fack the random sexual relatioships, that’s bullshit !
Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, 3D Graphics, Diary, Japan at 3:49 AM EDT
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Last weekend I went to do hanami (花見), literally “seeing flowers”, basically going on a pic-nic in some park to eat and drink under the blossoming cherry trees.
I went with some friends of mine, to join more friends. Initially I was supposed to get to the park by 10 am, then we settled for 10:30. However I woke up at 9:52 by chance ! (I have some reliability issues with my cellphone which I use as an alarm as well).
I quickly fixed some sandwiches and rushed to the park (well, I had to shower too 8).
That was actually a pretty nice day spent outside. I uploaded the pictures on flickr -> Hanami 2006 set. There are more, but those are not meant to be completely public, as they may stir trouble for some people (”can’t be seen together”, kind of thing).
Tuesday I went to a company’s welcome party for some new employees, and also an occasion to celebrate the hanami season (even if we didn’t have a chance to actually go hanami with other coworkers). Because of some events, we ended up having been offered the nomihoudai (飲み放題) option. Basically all-you-can-drink.
It’s normally the new arrivals those who are pushed to drink the most. But this time it seemed like I was on a mission to drink myself onto the floor.
In fact it ended pretty bad for me.. I utterly underestimated the strenght of some drinks and actually got myself sick.
I made a fool of myself, I was taken back to the office, where some went to sleep on the sofa. I was not feeling good enough even for sleep. I basically spent the night resting on the floor or on the chair while bothering a coworker that apparenty never stops working ! In the morning I eventually left the office in pretty sad conditions.
I regret having drank so much, but at the same time, it was good that I lowered my guard like that. It’s something important in the Japanese culture.. to unbutton yourself at least once in a year, and talk freely with coworkers.
I actually learned a few things, some good, some sad, and I hope that the things I said or did will help others to get the courage to take eventual important decisions !
ehhhhhhhhhh
It’s late… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary, Japan at 2:39 AM EDT
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Tonight (Friday) I went out !
Supposedly a lot of friends would gather. Practically, it didn’t go very well. Somehow, foreigners living in Tokyo tend to group. It’s true it’s not easy to have fun with Japanese guys, because of the obvious cultural gap, but, at the same time, associating with people just because they are Italian, isn’t a very good thing.
As a general rule, one should think “if I were in Italy, where I had an ample choice of Italian friends, would I still associate with X ?”. Not surprisingly, the answer is usually, no.
Somehow the fun of going out isn’t there anymore (or, for the time being). ..the usual places, the usual faces. I’m also generally disappointed on stupid some people can be, or weak, or both. But I’m not just a victim. I certainly do my part every time the mood is wrong. Social behaviors aren’t as random as one may think. I sometimes feel like people may rely on me to direct things. Untold but obvious situations where I fail.
I’m not a people’s person, I’m not a cool guy. I don’t have the charisma to drag people along. I’m don’t have the optimism in trying to animate the nightlife. I can be listening the most involving music in the most suggestive club, and start analyzing the graphics effects showing on some display.
To be charismatic one needs to think the right way. One has to avoid deep thoughts, be cool, look satisfied yet interested, act with the right amount determination at the right time. You can do something now or do it in 1 minute and have a completely different result.
I sometimes think about acting ! I woudln’t want to be working as an actor.. I would just like to be able to pretend to be in a certain way to be able to fix things around me. To bring out a good dose of fake charisma. Acting is no joke. If you can act (lie) you can get laid ! All one has to do is to keep a straight face to some woman, tell her all the bullshit she wants to hear, and use a little patience.
wooo I’m very sleepy. Time to go pretend to sleep 8)
Posted by Davide Pasca as Uncategorized at 7:26 AM EST
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