Nugget Cooking Iz MMO Crafting!

I came to the rather disturbing realisation this morning that my style of 'cooking' is almost exactly like MMO crafting.

  1. Get raw chicken (or cow, or piggy, or ... whatever)
  2. Add assorted herbs that I like (lotus seeds, fake cordyceps, polygonatum rhizona, lily flowers, whatever)
  3. Mix the entire mass together in a large-ish bowl, with spices from a premixed spicepack
  4. Pour water in rice cooker (about half the cooker's capacity)
  5. Put bowl in rice cooker
  6. Turn on and close rice cooker
  7. Press down button
  8. Wait till done
  9. NOM!

In other words, collect ingredients in backpack, press button and wait. O.o

The funniest thing is, with the right spicepack choices, this actually produces delicious (if not particularly aesthetic) food!

>.> <.< Advanced crafting requiring skeelz? >.> <.< Pah!

P.S.: One can even craft ginormous muffins this way.

Ze Weekly Nuggetsketch

My first attempt with a new program - Livebrush.

Livebrush is interesting for a couple of reasons, not least among them that it seems to present a more intuitive and fluid way to work with vector brushwork than Illustrator.

Takes a bit of getting used to, though, because what dictates the width/strength of the lines isn't pressure, but speed. The faster I move my brush, the fatter the lines I get.

That being said, I am a total nub at this, so it's entirely possible that there's a way to adjust so that the lines respond to pressure, and not speed.

The program itself seems pretty nice in terms of responsiveness, and the kinds of lines that are generated. Especially nice is that for just US$10, I'll have the option to export the entire thing as vector shapes.

I'll probably play with this some more on my upcoming holiday.

I also find it interesting how adapting to / learning this new tool has resulted in something quite far (I think) from my usual linework... Omm!

Campy Paragons of Fallen Angels FTW! With Added Ninja Twin Value.

Discovered last night that the Paragon dance + general look go amazingly well with the raiment of the lich costumes ArenaNet released for Halloween!

1-4: My brand new baby paragon camping it up.

5: My GM camping it up with me in Avian Courting Dances of Dubious Nature after I show him the wonderfulness of Fallen Paragon Camp

6: My blonde ninja wif a bun meets her twin, a (surprise!) fellow blonde ninja with a bun.

...and people say there's nothing to do on GW. Pfft.

GDC Vault - MUD: Messrs Bartle and Trubshaw's Astonishing Contrivance

Video of Bartle's presentation at GDC gdcvault.com

Wonderful talk. One of the things Bartle repeatedly mentions is that when designing, you need to know WHY you are doing it in the thing that YOU are designing.

Not because someone else has done it, not because everyone ELSE is doing it, but because it has a definite purpose in YOUR system.

Also has a great rant towards the end about how people don't do things better, because they don't realise that they can - that they're allowed to.

Some great quotes:

I won't be telling you how great text is over graphics, because that's an argument I've won many times... and still lost.

I won't be telling you how great permadeath is - God uses it, it can't be bad.

It behooves you all to understand WHAT you are designing, and WHY you are designing it.

What we wanted to do was say unpalatable things about the real world - within the protective frame of a game.

You must understand what's in the paradigm - then you can throw it away.

We put in the level system because it let you OUT of the (British social) class system!

Much of what he says isn't specific just to game design, but to learning and perfecting any craft.

Killed in a Smiling Accident. » Blog Archive » Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction.

Essentially I don’t get on with Guild Wars because every time I come to play it it teaches me just how bad I am outside of the basic piñata model of play. Every combat is so fast-paced and frantic that I finish it exhausted while not entirely sure what actually happened, other than I seem to somehow still be alive, which is the joy of having a healer henchman I suppose. In fact I picture the AI henchmen in my party silently mocking me for being an utter noob, and secretly all trying to vote-kick me out of the group so that they can continue on in peace without having to carry me.
via kiasa.org

If you play, have played, or are considering playing Guild Wars, you really, really should read this.

Also if you've introduced friends to your shiny new toy, brimming with happiness at its shininess, only to find them folding their arms, and saying, Vekk-style, 'I'm not impressed'.

It's a refreshingly honest and charmingly written look at why Guild Wars doesn't do it for Melmoth, and at the same time, is very clear on why it just might be your cup of tea.

It's definitely mine. =)