Lessons in life...from Dracula

I'm afraid I may have to suspend postings for a while. Since I'm having car trouble I won't be able to get to my wi-fi hotspot, and I just can't do all I want to with this blog with the internet issues here.

Anyway, since Halloween is coming up, I thought I'd give a little tribute to Vlad Dracula, the midieval  prince who provided the name for Bram Stoker's vampire. Vlad Dracula ruled the province of Wallachia (but he owned property in next-door Transylvania) in the 15th century. Historians prefer to call him "Vlad Tsepes" or "Vlad the Impaler", yet Vlad himself prefered the "Dracula" title, as evidenced by his signed documents. "Dracula", Slavic for "Son of the Dragon", referred to the title of his father, Vlad Dracul "The Dragon", who obtained said title by joining the Order of the Dragon, a knightly fraturnity of select European rulers (another member was King Alfonso of Spain, the villain of the Spanish epic "El Cid"). The "Dracula" title actually wasn't read as anything sinister until after Vlad Dracula's death, at which point his detractors published pamplets detailing his horrific deeds and making the most of dragons being associated with the devil. Even before Stoker, the subject of Dracula was a best-seller.

Of course, Dracula didn't earn the nickname of "Impaler" for nothing. His favorite method of execution was to impale his victims on a stake driven into the ground, and leave them there to rot. Some were impaled through the chest, others up from the buttocks out through the mouth (why did Vlad's executioner hate his job? His boss was always telling him where to stick it). But Dracula did believe in variety. Some lawbreakers he beheaded, and others he boiled or skinned alive.

Despite all this, Vlad Dracula would probably be offended at being portrayed as the spawn of Satan today. He fancied himself a Christian man, defending the faith against the Turks, and the Orthodox Church against the Catholics (until he converted over to regain his kingdom). He gave his victims Christian burials (when he got around to burying them) and he funded and built Orthodox monasteries.

Since Dracula considered himself one of high moral fiber, let us consider these tales of how Dracula did business in the good ol' days, and what we can learn from them.

Honesty is the best policy.
Once an important merchant stopped by Dracula's capitol, and asked the prince for guards to protect his cart of money. Dracula insisted that he needed no guards, and insisted the merchant stay at his place. The next morning, the merchant found that all his "ducats" (the currency denomination) had been stolen. Dracula put word out that the thief must be found, or he would burn down the town. Dracula then had the merchant's money reimbursed. The merchant counted the money in his cart, and found one extra ducat. He reported this extra unit to the prince, just as the thief was brought in, and sentenced to be impaled. When the merchant showed what he found, Dracula said, "Go in peace, if you had not admitted the extra ducat, you would have been impaled with the thief."

Good relationships are built on trust.
To show how low crime was in Wallachia, Dracula had a golden goblet placed at a prime watersource in his kingdom. It was never taken until the end of his reign.

When in Rome...
Once some dignitaries from Italy paid Dracula a visit. When they entered into his presence, they took their hats off, but not the skullcaps beneath. When asked why, they replied that they never took their skullcaps off for anyone, not even the highest emporer. Dracula told them he wished to "strengthen their customs", for which they were grateful. They were probably less grateful when he did so by nailing their caps to their heads.

A little hard work never killed anyone
From time to time, Dracula liked to go out among the commoners to see how they were doing. Once he met a man who was very shabbily dressed. He asked the man if he was married. The man said he was, and Dracula decided that since the man himself was hard-working, his lazy wife must be responsible for his state of dress. So Dracula executed the wife, then married the man to a new woman, who supposedly worked much harder.

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy
One of Vlad's first act as prince was to invite most of the local boyars (nobles) to a banquet, when he asked them how many princes they had known (served under). Each gave a number from three to seven. Dracula pointed out that the reason they had so many princes, was due to their own "shameful intrigues" (this was true, a prince in Wallachia was always hard-pressed to keep the boyars in line). Dracula then had them all arrested, and forced them to work on his new castle. Many died on the job, many others worked until their clothes fell off, and those that survived were impaled.

Always be considerate of others
Once after a great battle, Dracula took a meal in the midst of all the impaled prisoners of war. He noticed one the survivors holding his nose, and had the man impaled on an especially high stake, so he would be above the stench.
A man's home is his castle
When a certain scandal put Dracula under house arrest by the emporer of Hungary, there was the time when a local constable chased a thief into the manor the emporer had given Dracula. When Dracula discovered what was up, he took up his sword, went out, and beheaded...the constable. When the emporer demanded an explanation, Dracula's response was that if the constable had merely told him the situation, he would have turned the thief over to him, but since the constable intruded, he essentially committed suicide.

Judge not, lest ye be judged
Once Dracula asked two monks whether or not he would go to heaven. The first monk told Dracula he was a "slayer of evildoers", and pronounce his soul clean, which of course Dracula was satisfied with. The second monk pointed out Dracula's numerous crimes against humanity, even his habit of executing the children of his enemies, and told him his soul was damned. Three guesses what happened to the second monk (the monk's donkey got it too).

Practice makes perfect
When Dracula was actually in jail at one point in his life, he got into the habit of catching rodents and small birds and impaling them on sticks.

The info for this post comes from "Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and Times". I bought it awhile ago when it was on sale at Barnes and Noble, and found it quite detailed, and quite fascinating. Not a paid endorsement, just citing the source material (and it is a cool book).

Pang Power

I took two screenshots of this Pang 96! background, with the game sprites in different spots. I then copied the empty spaces (where the sprites were not)in one picture, and pasted them over the sprites in the other.

Some chicks can be so crude...

What's this picture look like to you?

 Here's what it looked like to me:

And sorry about the lack of drops, Entrecarders, but I'm stuck doing this on a network that blocks access to most blogs. I can't wait until I get my own home connection.

Anyway, here's some pics from my trip to Yellowstone!

 The Bull Moose Party

 Better they bother campers than bereaved widowers (Nevermore!)

 Old Faithful

Pinching Old Faithful

Another Abstract

Next week (yes, next, I'm celebrating term break by coming down to the Starbucks wi-fi hotspot an extra week), come see what I've made of this plaster formation. And speaking of which, I'll also be posting pics from my trip to Yellowstone!

With a Pang Pang Here, and a Pang Pang There...

And so continues my quest to collect and clean up all Pang 96! backgrounds...



Interpretive Picture

It seems last week's post was deleted, for some reason. Anyway, here was the picture I posted of a random pattern from my old shower wall.

Well, what I saw was a reptile with prominent lips, so I traced over the relevant parts in the picture with Adobe Illustrator to make this:

Farewell To Borders

The Border's store where I get my free wi-fi is going out of business as the company liquidates its assets. I'll miss Border's, not just for the wi-fi, but for the Orange Creme Soda, hot chocolate (with whipped cream studded with chocolate bits), the musicians who came to perform in the cafe' on weekends, and of course, the books.

Since Border's was the only wi-fi spot within walking distance, and I have little money for gas, for the time being I will have to limit my posts and Entrecarding to every other week. This will also give me more time to work on bigger projects that I plan to post here.

This little song is set to the tune "Farewell to the Mountains", which was allegedly written by Davy Crockett, (and sung by Fess Parker in the Disney movie Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.

Farewell, to old Border's, whose location to me,
Was harbor and refuge for my sanity.
No food was forbidden at the old cafe',
Their Orange Creme Soda always made my day.

The comics I read, the Wi-Fi I surfed,
The drinks that I drank, the treats that I scarfed,
The music performers, farewell to ye all
Seeking a new free hotspot, I rise or I fall.

More Spider Stuff

Here are some more spider pics with my EyeClops camera. The subject is what I believe to be a phiddipus audax. In addition to close-ups of the spider's face and eyes, I also got a couple of shots of the spider's chelicerae, the appendages that hold its fangs. The chelicerae of a phiddipus have bright green or blue scales that seem to reflect light, which I think makes them look especially pretty.

What I particularly like about jumping spiders like the phiddipus is that they seem to have more of a "personality" than other spiders. Most others spiders are virtually blind; their eight eyes are tiny don't really see much. Yet jumpers have larger eyes (in relation to their bodies) and with the two big ones in front, when you look at one, it can actually look back at you. Also, the legally blind, web-spinning spiders generally just sit around all day waiting for prey to come to them. Yet jumpers will actually seek out and stalk their prey, like a lion stalking an antelope. And they catch their prey with the jumping ability they are named for. One day I hope to get some film with my camera of a jumper in action on here. Anyway, below this last pic I wrote a little verse in tribute to my creepy-crawly friends.

(To the tune of "Survivor")

It's the eye of the spider, it's the creepiest sight,

Crawling up to pounce upon it's supper,

And the lone little fly is now locked square in its sights,

And he knows he is watched by the eyyyyyyyye

Of the spider!

That Juicy Pang Flavor

That's no moon...

"I remember black skies, the lightning all around me..."

These are clips of a huge lightning storm that occurred outside my parents' house late one evening. Amazingly, it was a long while before we actually heard any thunder; the lightning was evidently quite far away. I used my Fujifilm digital camera for these recordings. Not exactly the highest quality, I know, but I hope you at least get an idea of how awesome this storm was.

I'm Charlie Brown

And in no time, we'll be big time, with the big-league YouTube staaars...

A sketch that we did at my school, consisting of two numbers from the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and an improv infomercial.

More Pang For Your Buck

This one was a bit harder than I thought. Even in the irregularities of the water, there are still patterns which I had to observe and work around.

World of Warcraft Vortex Effect

In World of Warcraft, I like to get as many unique, fancy screenshots as I can. In the Arcatraz dungeon instance I took a screenshot of an energy spiral on the inside, and on the outside. I used a Mini-Zep Blimp I received in the Wintervale holiday event as a kind of sky-cam.

Book Review

I just recently finished a book trilogy written by Dan Wells, "I Am Not A Serial Killer", "Mr. Monster", and "I Don't Want to Kill You".

I felt like this series was something I had been looking for my whole life. The main character is a diagnosed sociopath, whose town is plaqued by a successive series of serial killers (of a most unusual nature, even for killers). The series could have been a sick, erotic, piece of work taking the worst of humanity and rolling in it. I don't care for such works. I like a certain amoun of "grit", but my tastes are more aligned with, say, The Dark Knight rather than the Saw series. However, in this book series the action and gruesomeness was laid out with taste, style, and a certain measure of restraint rather than pure slasher-film titilation. In addition, the main character, John Wayne Cleaver, was not only likeable and sympathetic, but quite possibly the most heroic main character I have ever seen in print or on screen. He is a person who has, due to his sociopathy, virtually no easy motivation to be a good person. He has no empathy for other people, and he has all the main signs of a serial killer, minus actually killing people (fascinated by fire and the torture of animals, comes from an abusive background, etc.) It would be as easy for him to become a monster as it would be for a person to get addicted to cigarettes.
Yet, as hard as it is for him to do the right thing, and practice self-restraint, he does it anyway. He does not let his dark desires become his destiny. In fact, he ends up using his sociopathy for positive ends.

Like I said, I like a certain amount of grit, yet many of the books, movies, and TV shows which lean towards the dark side have elements that I wish were not in there, that would cause me to look away in repugnance (to keep from staring in dark fascination), or not consume the work at all to begin with. But this series, for me, had a virtually perfect balance of promoting wholesome goodness, while still acknowledging, and educating on the darkness. Anyone who likes to at least look at the edge, without actually standing on it, should check this series out.

Just Pang Around

As I was gathering my initial batch of screenshots (and I still have quite a few to go), I realized that I would have less to clear away if I let my game character die and fall off the screen right before I took the shot. Since the dying sequence lasts only a couple of seconds, I have to be quick, but with this one, all I had to get rid of was the little red ball.

Various Versions of a Door in a Wall

Here's the original of a door and wall picture that I made with Photoshop. I used an actual picture of a pair of double-doors, and the wall I built from a section I took from a stucco picture. I made multiple copies of this section, and used it to make "bricks" to build the wall. I took one copy, and stretched and embossed it for the pillars. The rest was made with the bucket and brush tools.

I've wanted to rework this for a while, so I decided to add some filters, this is a water-color filter...

 ...for quilt lovers, here's a patchwork filter...

...and for those with a "negative" attitude,(zing!) here's a neon glow filter!

Can Switches on the Light

This is my "ultra-sophisticated" first animation project with 3dsMax. The light source in the video is actually directly in front of the lamp, since I didn't know a way to get light to shine through an object. I have this film on YouTube, but I'm hoping this player does a bit better with the quality.

3/16/11
I tried to go with Windows Media Player, but it put up the YouTube version instead, which is a bit grainer than I had hoped. Hopefully I can find a way to fix that.

The Rare and Elusive Swake

This unusual creature, a hybrid of swan and cobra, is found only in the southernmost tip of India. It feeds primarily on water plants, but will also take small fish and rodents. It has never been photographed in the wild before, due to its tendency to chase after the photographer in question, and not desist, no matter how long it takes, until it has delivered a bite of its deadly venom. Fortunately I was able to snap this before the creature saw me, and by the time it noticed my presence, I had gotten clean away (wait, what's that outside the window...oh shoot it found me!)

The Jokermobile

I just finished reading the graphic novel: Batman: Knightfall, featuring Bane, one of the villains who will appear in Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises. I'm pretty confident that Nolan's Bane will be closer to the one the comics than in Batman and Robin. While the latter was a dumb henchman, the former was a brilliant mastermind with brains to match his brawn, and who sets out to "break" Batman both physically and psychologically.

Anyway, for one of my class assignments, I decided to turn a Dodge Viper into a "Jokermobile", since I thought it only fair that the Joker get his own signature ride.

Still Panging Away

Is is just me, or is this bedroom unusually spatious?

Money Thoughts For Tax Season

They say money doesn't grow on trees, but even if it does, wouldn't it be counterfeit?

If you ask someone for a loan, and they say, "You think I'm made of money?" I think the proper response is, "Yes, that's why this will cost you an arm, and a leg."

Darkmoone Fair Wallpaper

I tried my hand at making a 1440x0900 wallpaper using the Darkmoone Faire symbol from Word of Warcraft. I had to time the Snipping Tool just right to get a screenshot of the symbol, since the animations don't leave it bare for long.

A Critical Analysis of Rebecca Black...and Fred Figglehorn

After seeing various vlogs and reading this article about Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video, I decided to watch it. At first I was moderately impressed, because I was expecting it to filmed and edited with amateur equipment, and I was rather surprised it was done in a "professional" style. Yet the lyrics were ho-hum, (as opposed to especially funny or deep), the voice was, "okay", (though it seems most people think it was worse than that), so the best I can say is, "good try."

But then I got to thinking, "Wait, there have been plenty of virals floating around online that are famous because people like them, how is it that a relatively expensive music video, shot with professional equipment, got less 'likes' than Charlie Bit My Finger?" Basically, I was thinking I should like it, but didn't.

Here is my ultimate take. I think "Friday" could have been a good amateur video, but was a poor professional video. I could be wrong, but I believe that if Ms. Black did the same song, with same lyrics, shot with a home-video camera, with music provided by a cheap sythesizer program, at the very least, the flaming would not have been so bad. In fact, I'm confident that while it would not have gotten as much publicity, it would have gotten more "likes".

In my opinion, it is easier to accept and praise amateur work when it is displayed as such. Professional work, on the other hand, needs to have professional talent to match. An exception is when you are going for extremely goofy, like Chad Vader, an absurd series about Darth Vader's younger brother working in a grocery store. Or askaninja, where a ninja answers questions posed by viewers, and (nowadays) reviews various viral videos. Though they are filmed with above-home-video equipment, none of them pretend to be "sophisticated," and may not reach everyone's taste, yet if you look at the number of "likes" and comments, you'll see that they strike the funnybone of a lot of people.

On the home-video level, there is justsomerandomguy, a youtube channel whose videos mainly consist of Marvel and DC comic book characters arguing over whose movies were better. The filming is as low-budget as you can get; the characters are represented by action figures, who are moved by off-screen hands, and there are only two people doing the voices for all the characters. Yet the dialogue is "sophisticated", as the characters critically analyze each other's movies and profiles in a Siskel and Ebert type manner. The theme is generally a parody of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC", commercials. Even as your laughing at the characters' cheap shots at one another, you're also thinking about elements of said characters you might not have noticed before, or viewed in that particular way. This whole format would not work as a syndicated TV show, (unless perhaps the filming was professional-grade), but as a YouTube series, it works very well as an entertaining analysis of comics and the movies they're based on.

An example of amateur YouTube work going "pro" is the infamous Fred Figglehorn, a character created by Lucas Cruikshank, who films himself acting like a hyper six-year-old (and sounding like a chipmunk). While the concept gets plenty of flaming, the Fred YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers, and Nickelodeon produced a "Fred" movie. The movie itself was not well received (at least in some quarters), which leads me to conclude that Fred is another good example of amateur filming that works best as amateur.

Of course, one could say that concepts such as Fred shouldn't work at all, because they are so pathetically ridiculous. But that I believe, is the point. Mr. Cruikshank's purpose was to act out a character with complete, reckless abandon.Not everyone's cup of tea, of course, but there are still quite a few people who appreciate the shear chutzpa of the endeavor. So it can still be argued that Lucas accomplished his purpose ("fear, chaos, my work here is done"), at least as far as his YouTube videos are concerned.

Some may say that professional companies and agents need to be more careful about creating "instant celebrities", lest they pick up kids with no talent and thrust them into a spotlight they haven't earned. I partially agree, but I think there are two extremes in talent scouting that need to be avoided. First, the idea that only professional critics should have the final say on what is "good" and what isn't, and anything which pleases the unwashed masses but bypasses the critics is an abomination. Second, the idea that anybody can be a superstar, so everybody should get an equal chance.
The problem with the first extreme is that while critics can be useful in recommendations, and thought-provoking analysis, the final say in showbiz should ultimately go to the consumers, who should not rely on other people to dictate their own personal taste. If people like it enough to watch/pay for it (they may only care for the former and not the latter) and enough like it to draw other's attention to it, can you really argue against success?
The problem with the second extreme is that not everyone can be be a superstar, at least not right away. Again, you ultimately have to please the consumers, meaning you have to come up with something which will do that. This takes time, effort, trial and error, and there is plenty of competition. If you define "success" as pleasing only yourself, then go ahead plug away on your own time and budget. But if you define "success" as producing something people will pay for, you have to make the effort to know and please your audience. Not everyone has the will to do this, at least not in show biz.

Did Rebecca Black accomplish her purpose in doing a record-label worthy, widely popular song and music video? Probably not, but I think it is only because she over-reached with what she had. If she could get a longer arm, so to speak, in improving her voice, and getting better lyrics, then perhaps she has a shot at being the next Taylor Swift. But that is ultimately for the consumers to decide, and if enough consumers decide an artist's work is good, that said artist makes a decent amount of money, then the artist's purpose is accomplished, even if they aren't universally popular. If the artist's goal is merely to make funny videos that get people laughing, and lots of people laugh, then the artist's purpose is still accomplished, again even if they aren't universally popular.

Another Pang Pic

Getting the stone pattern over the sprites was rather challenging. How did I do?

Food for Thought

If I caught a leprecaun, I wouldn't ask for his pot of gold, I'd ask where the gold came from!

Newsvine Article

I wrote an article on Newsvine detailing the steps Muslims could take in regaining America's trust, and dissassociating themselves from terrorists.

World of Warcraft Carving

One of the things I like about the World of Warcraft game is the artistry involved in the scenery and chracters. This is a troll carving from the Sunken Temple dungeon.

More Pictures from Pang

I saved the original screenshot from the hallway so you could see the character and ball.

YouTube Video

I made this video for an ITT Tech class with 3ds Max. The sound is from a Gamescene MP3 mixer.

 
So close and yet so far...

Pictures from Pang

A long time ago, in an Internet-based school far far away, my classmates and I discovered a game called Pang 96! Basically you play a monkey popping big red balls with a harpoon. One of the things that kept me coming back for more was that each level has a randomly generated CGI picture in the background. When I discovered the "Snip" tool on Windows Vista, I used it to start getting screenshots of the Pang 96! levels. I then used Adobe Photoshop to clear out the game elements, leaving the artwork behind. I intend to collect all the pieces eventually. Here are the first three that I've done.