Blog

  • Merlion Asian Market

    January 27, 2005

    Chinese Necessities!After being in business for about a year, the Dong Fang Oriental Market closed and reopened under new management. I was pretty disappointed, since they were much better stocked than the Joyce Chen over in Amherst. But O Happy Day! The Merlion Asian Market has risen from the ashes of the old. They stock the foods that matter most: curry and hot chinese sauces. And gluten, pork dumplings, chinese meatballs, vegetables, steam breads, weird cookies, funky soft drinks, roasted seaweed, rice noodles, canned eel…you get the idea.

    (more…)

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    DSri Seah
  • Collaboration

    January 27, 2005

    Hey, People!Today I posted to the MMBug Discussion List, to see if I could find any other folks in southern new hampshire / northern mass region who wanted to get together and chat about interactive design:

    SO FAR: Three, THREE People have responded. :-)

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    DSri Seah
  • On Stretching

    January 27, 2005

    I was chatting with Alen today about my goal to do 10 games this year as a way of maintaining momentum and learning some stuff in the process. He congratulated me on making the insight, and related two foundation art school exercises he did at (I think) University of Michigan:

    • 30 Drawings in 30 Minutes — the idea is to make a whole bunch of drawings every session. Eventually, you amass thousands of drawings, and some of the best stuff you’ll ever make will come out of it. My thought is that the more you do something, the better you’ll get at it. Letting go and just doing is probably another good thing to master… it’s something I’ve traditionally had trouble with, being prone to overplan and detail contingencies in a meticulous manner…
    • Ugly Drawing — the instructor asks you what you think is ugly, then you are made to make it! About halfway through, you are then told to somehow “rescue” the picture. The resulting tension in the drawing, Alen said, made for phenomenal results.

    I have some equivalent ideas, but they’re not so poetic: (more…)

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    DSri Seah
  • Picasa’s Awesome X Button

    January 26, 2005

    I am continuing to evaluate Picasa 2, and noticed something interesting about zooming into “full screen” photo mode that is both simple and clever.

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    DSri Seah
  • The Two Wolves

    January 26, 2005

    I came across this link via a friend. It tells this parable:

    The Wolves Within

    An old Grandfather, whose grandson came to him with anger at a schoolmate who had done him an injustice, said, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.” He continued, “It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.” “But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.” The boy looked intently into his Grandfather’s eye and asked, “Which one wins, Grandfather?” The Grandfather solemnly said, “The one I feed.”

    This struck a chord. If this was Vacation Bible School, the easy intepretation would be “Don’t feed the angry one. Peace out.” Indeed, this is what I started to write. However, it occurs to me that the two wolves represent a spectrum of action; there are perhaps times when you need to call on that action. In the case of self-defense, for example. Or when there clearly is evil afoot, as clear as we can see at any given time.

    So I suppose the corollary is, “You are what you eat” :-)

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    DSri Seah