Last year, a company named Euclideon from Australia, came out with Unlimited Detail Technology showing infinite point cloud data being run in real-time using only software. Instead of using polygons, they said they could use atoms. They had very little to show for it, especially since processing this amount of detail was questionable at best. Now, after a year of work, they have released what they have and it is amazing.

It’s been a busy year, and all is going very well; we only have 9 people working here, but will be hiring a few more soon. We also have another piece of technology that isn’t graphics, but does something game related that’s also pretty clever, but we’ll keep that secret for now.

They will soon make a developer’s kit and release it out to the gaming companies.

I. Can’t. WAIT! OMG I AM IN TEH FUTURES!!!

Short URL: http://is.gd/gaminggraphics

When the late King Alband III had gone into the long cold sleep in a manner queerly
Five years after King Alband III, Belrand’s father, had gone into the long cold sleep in a manner queerly suspect leaving son as King, the young mage by some means defeated and consolidated all of the Gnomish Eronon and now, but three lunar cycles later, the warmachine is being readied. A map with the latest updated information lay across the table between he and his generals. On the left lay Eronon with city points and troop strengths. On the right, past the Lycernian Sea, lay Garns. What information bought through the traders added to that side of the map.

The various realms of Garns did not know what awaited them. Soon they would be ruled by King Belrand.

In a nondescript northern village within Garns, Edgar awoke with a start. War is coming. There was a sense of dread. He knew what he had to do. With the rest of the realm in turmoil, there was only one force he could turn to. The Unicorn Kingdom in South Garns. Edgar needed to make leave quick.

To Be Continued… Below is a preview of the EPIC battle.

This drawing was commissioned and paid for. Check out the artist on twitter @RemyKat and visit her blog, http://remykat.weebly.com/. Thanks Remy!

Short URL: http://is.gd/UnicornsVSGnomes

Let me set the stage up, earlier tonight four women calling themselves Team Unicorn released this video on break.com. Watch it if you haven’t seen it and make your own opinions about it.

Here are their names linked to their twitter feeds:

Team Unicorn: @TeamUnicornFTW
Michele Boyd: @MicheleBoyd
Clare Grant: @ClareGrant
Milynn Sarley: @TheGamerChick
Rileah Vanderbilt: @Rileah

After watching the music video, I want to quote the description provided by Break, I believe:

This music video parody proves Geek and Gamer Girls really do exist. Extra geek cred for appearances by a rapping Seth Green, Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff and Stan Lee.

Lyrics and mp3 available here: http://brk.to/gamergirlsong

Team Unicorn – http://www.facebook.com/TeamUnicornFTW

From what I can see, most people loved this parody. There were a few people that did not like the direction this video took. I wanted to address these issues, I will not name names, I just want to discuss some points I saw brought up and give my take on the video and why I believe it should not be dismissed the way some have. I will also say that I do not at all harbor any negative feelings towards anyone, everyone is entitled to their opinions and I respect that. Don’t hate me!

The main issue that was brought up was that the women in the video are all beautiful and do not represent gamer girls because they come in all shapes and sizes.

Someone brought up a good video that discusses sexualizing women in the gaming culture. Watch it here.

Admittedly, it’s a bit unfair to point fingers. A lot of these girls may be legit gamers who just enjoy flaunting what they got, and it would be really unfair for me to demand that they set a good example.

From the video linked right above. He goes on to say:

but at the same time we have so few other types of female presences in gaming and this can’t be helping either gender feel more comfortable with one another in the game space. And women feel alienated, men feel manipulated, I’m just saying…

Felicia Day recently posted a blog post on her well maintained website [self reference har har] titled Women in Tech. Within it she links several articles that are very good reads on the gender subject.

Team Unicorn is a group of women who are friends, geeks, gamers, actresses and all happen to be beautiful women. Also, they’re a group. Like a troupe.

Comments like “they’re all beautiful” and “they don’t represent all geek and gamer girls” would be factual statements. They’re not saying they represent all geek and gamer girls. They’re not even saying they’re beautiful. Sure, they’re showing it and practically saying it on their video, but the video itself is a parody. Parodies are done over the top. The song is basically California Gurls by Katy Parry feat Snoop, only with their own lyrics.

The thing that made me blog tonight were the comments that basically suggested adding “variety” because the girls are all beautiful. That really sounds to me like they’re saying “Add some ugly girls” which just sounds absurd. Team Unicorn has four members. They all appeared in this parody. If other people joined them, they’ll appear in future things they work on, I am sure. What is this need to say geek and gamer girls have to be frumpy? If they want to wear makeup or heels or whatever “girly” thing they want, it is their prerogative.

As part of the parody, they had what has normally been the “norm” of geekdom, the nerdy guys. You don’t see male models, like myself I might add, complaining that buff guys were not represented. Yes, this is a weak argument, I will move on, I just wanted to call myself a buff model type.

The origin of their troup/group name, Team Unicorn, is in their press release – “Geek girls are like unicorns: technically they don’t exist – except in this awesome musical parody by Team Unicorn!” again lampooning the fact that the “norm” is that girl geek/gamers are a myth.

Another issue that was brought up was using Seth Green, Katee Sackhoff, and Stan Lee. Seth is married to one of these women, but he himself is considered in the realm of the Geek due to his various projects and because he himself is a geek. Katee, of BSG fame, well, BSG. Stan, good old Stan represents the comics, a staple of Geekery. A parody tends to be much more parodier with celebs.

Something else that kinda grinds my gears is if it were a voluptuous woman or a “plainer” woman playing the sexy in a video, she would be cheered as a geek champion, but oh no, these four beautiful women can’t represent geeks or gamers because they… what? They’re too beautiful? This is what I see. This is my main gripe with the people that were complaining about this video. This is the same issue as me not being a male lead in a movie or an tv show because I am fat and wear glasses… well, also because I haven’t tried auditioning for one, but you know what I mean… why can’t they be what they claim they are?

A friend asked a very good question, something like “What if it were a bunch of male models representing geeks, would you be ok with it?” Yes. Yes I would. Are they geeks? Because, Michele, Milynn, Clare, and Rileah are. If four six-packed male model-types had their own little parody music video, I would be ok with it. Mainstream has had a fun time of telling us that real life is about mostly good looking people while the rest are delegated to the side-kick or comedic relief, but does that mean that we should quickly attack people because they aren’t “ugly” enough?

The last point I will focus on is a comment that basically said, “I admire people who don’t feel they have to sexualize themselves to get fans”. To the person that actually said it, I am not trying to single you out here, it is just that you made a very good point and I felt it was worth exploring here. We’re dealing with four rather intelligent women, in this Team Unicorn. Personally, I know Michele has a Science degree in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. I am sure they knew there was a pot and it would be stirred. They are actresses. They live off fans. Fact of life. More people will know of them now. Yes, other people either don’t or keep “the sexy” to a minimum. Someone was mentioned in this comment specifically who has done what the commenter suggested she hadn’t. It was argued by others privately that one instance was a character, and the other was purely a parody and also used a variety of “types” of people, but the fact remains that sometimes sexy is a device used in comedy. I am sorry for the vagueness but I want to keep the focus here and not really make comparisons even though I kinda am.

Controversy is a good thing sometimes, especially to garner a base of fans. Sure, it could be viewed as a negative thing, but again, I personally think their video was expertly done, their lyrics were on par, and they definitely flaunted their beauty, and their geekness. In this parody music video, they were representing themselves. Ladies, maybe you want to make your own parody video in which you’ll represent your own self. I promise I won’t complain about there not being “beautiful girls” in it. Odds are, you are beautiful and you just don’t know it.

Yes, Michele is my friend, and I do support her, and her friends, in everything they do. I may be biased because of this, or because I myself am a male and may not understand what it really means to be a geek girl or a gamer girl or both. I am a geek. I am a gamer. I have scoffed in the past because of similar attempts of getting my attention with the beautiful women doing the geek things, but when I know they are the real deal, and they are doing a parody music video to boot, what’s the harm in that? They are proud of being healthy. They are proud of being girls. They are proud of being geeks. They are proud of being gamers.

And I am proud of them.

The end.

Well, really I was being silly and I just wanted to make a fool of myself by singing stuff…

I wanted to make up a song and the first thing that came to mind was a parody of Puttin on the Ritz called Puttin up with Fitz. Unfortunately, it came off as an insult, which I quickly fixed (I hope I did) because it wasn’t so at all. It goes with the parody.

At the time @leahjones was featured on a news story in the Chicago Tribune, and we were in the midst of tweetups and lunches with twitter pals (@1god). @BleuCaldwell was setting up some meetups or something through twitter at the time too, I think.

@gar_cia and @ceelos would also complain about a stinky coworker (not @Fitz) that would poop and not properly flush, along with other even more gross things he would do.

My sister had just joined twitter and I joked that her handle @yeseningles was one word but I really knew it was Yes en ingles (Yes in English). I think that properly tells all the inside jokes…

Oh no… Prima Nalgotas… @gar_cia‘s cousin was dubbed Prima Nalgotas and we would, from time to time, ask where she is on twitter “Donde estas Prima Nalgotas?”

For your enjoyment:

Ahhh, the good old days…

Its soo weird to be able to do this and if I had the time, I’d totally write up a whole story with these guys and see how it went… Please let me know if you own this game and decide to do this too… I will be extra impressed if you make a sim of me

There’s me:

I aspire to be a top police enforcement officer… not much to choose from. My traits are family, hopeless romantic, lucky, and other things that describe me well. I already got him a job in the law enforcement track. Figured someone has to work. I’ll find jobs for the others soon.

There’s Felicia Day (Codex):

I made her a bit like Codex but a bit like Felicia too… she aspires to be a guitarist and master speaker… I did not see an actor option. Her traits include neurotic, charismatic, and others. I already noticed that she HAS to check the stove to see if its off sometimes…

Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo):

I made him way more like Zaboo because its hilarious… he gets scared easily, a hopeless romantic, can be annoying and his Simian (whatever the language is) sounds JUST LIKE HIM! That was eerie. I swear he said Sandeep once too. Anyway, it will be interesting how he turns out in the game.

Finally, saved the best for last, Jeff Lewis (Vork):

He is a mooch, very frugal, and already seems very anal. His casual clothing is suit and tie and sneakers. Funny that when I went to make him, the dude already had the bald hair style. Weird. Anyway, in this Sims, you cant’ choose height, but I set him as lanky, since it will distinguish him as tall then. I figure I will send this guy off to other houses to eat from their food. lol (squab!) When he views thing, the thought bubble shows the golden dollar sign, like he’s thinking of selling it for the simoleans.

Now, I haven’t done anything with them, just had them freely do anything. I noticed that everyone seemed willing to sleep with Felicia (big surprise there) but then two of the guys were sleeping and I found out it was just that they have to consider each other friends is all. I plan on adding more cast to other homes and have them all interact and see what happens… I will also make up significant others specifically for each char and see if I can get them to fall for each other. So if Felicia, Sandeep, or Jeff have specific desires as to their significant other should look like, let me know before I move on to that part of this game lol.

I will leave you with some more screen shots I took:

People are so busy dreaming the American Dream, fantasizing about what they could be or have a right to be, that they’re all asleep at the switch. Consequently we are living in the Age of Human Error. – Florence King

Some of you may or may not have seen this tweet this weekend:

To my chagrin, I awaited my call, for I had won a text message contest after sending but two txt messages with the correct word into the number provided, soon there was a woman on the radio that was considered the winner. What?

Yeah, something was up and I was not going to sit idly. Calling their station number only resulted in busy signals, which I rarely hear lately, or “cannot be completed” or “all circuits are busy” messages. I also texted in that I was waiting for my call. Lastly, because I am proactive, I went on their website, found their promotions department and sent them an email asking if there was something wrong with this contest.

See, I’ve never attended their concerts in the past, for I could never afford it, nor justify purchasing tickets so with the chance to go for free, I jumped at the chance, especially with the lineup promoted.

I promptly went about my business that Saturday, going to a boat architectural tour with my sisters and cousin. Along the way, the promotions person called me and told me she received my email and explained the situation.

It seems that some sort of “glitch” had happened which caused false winning texts to be sent out after the winner was chosen and I was actually not the winner. I know what you’re thinking at this point, as I was at the time. Not my fault and I should still get tickets, but I wasn’t about to express this right away, I am patient and I let her continue. See, the email I sent wasn’t angry nor accusatory. It was more of is there something wrong type of email. She continued by letting me know that even though I did not win, she would still give me a pair of tickets since I had received this message. She also said someone would contact me during the week for my information.

This is where I am currently am, and I am very hopeful that I will receive a pair of tickets, and I plan on taking one of my sisters, depending on the age limit they have for this venue. So although I didn’t really win, I still ended up a winner since I was promised my own pair of tickets and I didn’t have to stress about it either. I never really felt entitled, which is a difference from thinking I should still get tickets to thinking I deserve the tickets, and by just living a positive life and trying for the tickets did I get them. If I hadn’t gotten them, oh well, big whoop.

The cool thing is that I have Lisa Lampanelli tickets the weekend after for myself and @yeseningles. This was my birthday present to her. June will be a fun month for sure.

This web series was pointed out to me by @crackledotcom, a buddy, and it resides on Crackle.com obviously. I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it is to watch an action-packed web show filled with intrigue and beautiful deadly women.

It was created and written by Ed Brubaker, and directed by Paul Etheredge and is no slouch with the star power, with Zoë Bell (Quentin Tarantino‘s “Death Proof“) as Eve, a remorseless assassin, employed by a ruthless crime family, and Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess,” “Battlestar Galactica“) as Vera, Eve’s unwitting next door neighbor.

Along with these two powerhouse women the cast comprises of Ted Raimi as Jed Norton, which by the way is the first time the three worked together since Xena (Bell as Lawless’ stunt double); Doug Jones (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer“) as Dr. Rankin; Vail Bloom (“The Young and the Restless“) as Regina Downes; Brian Poth (“CSI: Miami“) as Graham; Justin Huen (“Weeds“) as Franklin; and Jake Abel (“Cold Case“) as Cameron Downes.

That’s a very good selection of actors, if I do say so myself!

After suffering a severe head trauma while on the job, Eve begins to hallucinate and becomes haunted by her victims. As a result of her injury, Eve is driven to seek revenge on those who ordered the hits in the first place — her mob employers.

If that’s not the best premise out there, I don’t know what is. The first thing you will notice when watching it is how amazingly it was shot. Its in comic book-panel style, which in my opinion adds to the quality and mystique of the show. I also can’t stress enough how great the action sequences are on this series. Also note, this series is of a mature nature, so its violent and its cussy… but what would YOU say with a four inch blade in your head?

So, the ten episodes are out on the website and soon we will have the ability to purchase the DVD along with new footage as a full length feature. Go ahead and watch and prepare to be amazed.

Facts

The series is a White Rock Lake Production being produced by John Norris.

This may be the first web series to have a soundtrack: Toadies platinum selling guitarist, Darrel Herbert, did the score.

This is Nacho usual tweetup...

And thus proclaimed the great Amy J Fisher, “Let there be Nachos!” And the Nachos ran abundant for tables and tables, filled with hungry and anticipating people, ready for the bountiful delights of the Nachos.

Yeah so… We had a tweetup where we ate nachos. It was fun. Contrary to @silverbell‘s expression over yonder. A nice-sized crowd showed up and I even met some new friends. Let me just say that we all mingled very well. It probably helped that there was also liquor and it was flowing freely.

I have uploaded my pictures to my flickr so feel free to view and comment on them. If you missed the tweetup, it is but a sampling of what was missed. You can imagine what pictures I chose not to put up is all I am saying.

One of my favorite pictures, and I have many is this one of @Fitz and @LeahJones taking a picture with nachos and beer, which Leah yelled out “Nachos and Beer!” This explains the tweetup very nicely.

Speaking of @Fitz, John decided to take what’s been referred as a “sexy pose”… Being sexy is his business, and business is good!

I can sit here and post every single picture I took, but you can go ahead and view my latest set from the tweetup.

I did want to point out that I was wearing my photoshop’d shirt, which has a back-story. I watch The Guild as well as admin their website. Its a great web series by Felicia Day. She plays a gamer of an online game and finds one of her online gaming friends at her doorstep, Zaboo (played by Sandeep Parikh). Zaboo is basically a stalker and one of the things he does is photoshops a picture of him and of Codex, Felicia’s character. So, I was to meet Felicia and Sandeep last year and thought it would be really funny to make a t-shirt of me and him photoshop’d. It was a hit. Well, Sandeep thought it creepy, which made it even better. So, at the Nacho Tweetup, I had a name tag for myself and I placed it on the t-shirt me, so I gave t-shirt Sandeep his own name tag as well. You can see me wearing two name tags, because mine has my twitter handle and http://yearoftheedgar.com while the other one has Sandeep’s twitter handle and http://effinfunny.com. The great thing was that about half of the people there knew the inside joke of it, which is awesome. Lastly, Sandeep also created Legend of Neil, a hilarious web series about a guy named Neil who finds himself in the Legend of Zelda game and has to find away out.

Its my year baby!

2008 is but a memory. I had a wonderful year full of several fun events and meeting new people and just being plain old me. Its been one of the better years in my life and I have no other place to go but up. This year needs to be even better than the last one. Simply because I feel like it and I said so.

I am of the belief that you should be filled with as much confidence as possible. Its better that way. There’s a term called self-fulfilling prophecy, negative people end up making their fears happen. Why can’t positive people end up making their desires come true too? With that in mind, I decided to make this Year of the Edgar. Its obviously a chinese zodiac reference, also, some of the Guildies have, for some reason, been referencing me as “the Edgar”. It all works out!

Here’s the thing… http://yearoftheedgar.com <- this is my new website. It will chronicle my awesome year as well as anyone having great experiences while following my philosophy. There’s even a banner you can add to your website. Please do. I will make me smile greatly if you can use my mug on your website(s).

Welcome to the Year of the Edgar.

Yes, my twitter page got some exposure as they splashed it on the screen for a few seconds. Funny enough, the latest tweet was about the Lambada. The real stars were Jenny and @leahjones, twelebrities… A couple of people I should meet were also featured.

Featured on ABC7 Chicago News

Please… no pictures!