Hornbostel Media Bulletin Boards

Sacrifice, Selflessness -- True spirituality. Should we, or must we, live like Jesus?

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:16:17 GMT

I've been struggling in my faith for a long time now.

I'm half-convinced that I'm going to hell, or some kind of purgatory, for all the things I'm doing wrong. I feel God assuring me that I'm going to make it to heaven (not because I in any way deserve it - nobody does - but because He loves me and I love Him, and we care about each other.) but I can't help feeling that there will, there must, be some sort of chastisement for my sinful and selfish ways...

Imagine a political candidate...

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:15:35 GMT

Imagine that you live in a nation that's a democracy. It's a nation with a traditionally Christian heritage that has tended to drift towards secularism over time. It's a nation that has recently been through a long and damaging war that is largely regarded as having been a disaster and a huge mistake for your country, and your country is collapsing economically.

Unemployment and inflation are very high. There are rich elites in power but most of the people in your...

Miniature Miniature Golf

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:59:16 GMT

This is a loony idea I had in conjunction with the idea posted elsewhere of photographed or stop-motion animated miniatures as video game graphics.

Suppose I made a minigolf game with Gendai Games' GameSalad? A minigolf game with miniature graphics. I.e. Miniature miniature golf.

I'd want to test the technical side of it first, of course - no clue if it'd work technically unless I tested the scripting/logic side of it. If it works technically, I could go...

Miniature Miniature Golf

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:59:13 GMT

Vacation gives me ideas!

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:30:35 GMT

I'm on vacation in North Carolina and that's part of why not much is happening on my web network.

Expect massive improvement in the next month, as August is free time for me to work on whatever I want to work on.

Namely, my projects.

I've been thinking about how much I love miniatures and how wouldn't it be great if I made a video game that used miniatures for the graphics?

I.E. Something like the Neverhood, which was an old Lucasarts...

Gays vs. Christians vs. Furries -- my response to a strange argument

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:09:40 GMT

There was a news story about some woman in Africa marrying her dog (this is also common in India) and it devolved into an argument that was fairly cruel between a group of gays/liberals and some Christians, including one who said that he didn't trust gays or lesbians, that "those things aren't right in the head, they spread filth everywhere they go" and that they should all be executed.

And then there's the gays who complain about...

I took drugs. Not my usual ones. Also, death, depression, and sex.

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:27:58 GMT

Yes, I'm on Prozac and Risperdal, that much is true.

But I also tried (briefly) a chemical castration drug, before I told my parents about it and they made me stop. It was from India. I ordered it over the internet. That's not something you're supposed to do, apparently.

But then I have no common sense, remember? I'm autistic. I microwaved ice cream. I put ice cubes in water I was going to boil. I responded to a phishing email once. (Note to...

More on "Traveler's Enigma", "Ambassador", psychology.

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:42:39 GMT

I'm hesitant to finish "Traveler's Enigma". It's that, well, I'm embarrassed by it now. It's such a mess. I don't want to abandon it, but I don't want to release it. I feel it's, well in a lot of places it's crap, honestly. It has good parts of course but it needs a lot of work which I'm not willing to do. I can't very well rebuild this thing from scratch.

I have some difficult-to-implement pieces and ideas and stuff...

"Ambassador" in crisis

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:42:26 GMT

There's some debate about Ambassador.

It's a good game already, but the finishing work...

My team has ditched "Ambassador" in favor of a new game (which is wonderfully innovative in its own right) and we'll work on that one this summer.

They don't think that "Ambassador" can win the competition we're entering; it was aimed at the Imagine Cup but got eliminated due to a severe (but now fixed) programming bug, and while it...

Advertise your website on Hornbostel Media

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:54:57 GMT

I'm offering an opportunity for you guys out there. Whoever you are, who follow my inane ramblings.

Right now, on ebay, I'm selling ad space on my web network. Five different sites on my network, your ad on a dozen pages, and your ad will be THE ad people see, the only advertising grabbing the attention of viewers on these five sites.

TriumphantArtists.com
HornbostelMedia.com
Duel2030.com
Troop4Houston.org
RiveraProductions.com

Fall Festival 2009

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:08:43 GMT

Well, I have some plans to make the 2009 Fall Festival Redeemer's best yet. I'm going to be setting up a simple minigolf game and (maybe) bowling game as available minigames for the festival; I'd like some of my friends manning these stations, Youth Group people that I trust, who won't let golf balls, bowling pins, etc, get stolen.

There'll be prizes (chocolates, cookies, etc) for the best players, the ones who get a hole-in-one on the minigolf hole or a strike...

Isola Gardens returns to simply "Isola".

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:51:04 GMT

There is a company called Isola Gardens. They make, uh, gardens. So I'm switching to domain name "IsolaIPhone.com", which will be active within a day or two.

There'll be a new screenshot too. You'll get a nice look at a Japanese Garden area I'm working on.

http://www.isolaiphone.com

Dave Tenney's Vinyard Media Group

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:47:52 GMT

Some stuff is going on at Dave Tenney's Vinyard Media Group, which is part of a different Vinyard church than the one I attend.

Anyway, Mona Lawrence is moving forward on Trudy Justice 3, and Dave Tenney is contemplating making a Star Trek fan film.

Both of them would like me to do a few VFX shots for their projects. :)

Hopefully I'll get permission to post their videos on Triumphant Artists when it's done, and then you'd all get to see them.

Miniature train sets, 1:900 scale or smaller! I might make one someday...

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:33:31 GMT

There's a couple living in South Dakota that makes ridiculously tiny train layouts. 1:900 scale is their standard, but there's no compelling reason you couldn't push that further, to 1:1200 scale or so. In any case, they have entire train sets that fit in a 4 inch by 4 inch space! An inch of space in their micro-sized layouts represents 75 feet of real-world space, that's how tiny their scale is.

After looking at their work on

Isola Gardens engine uncertain at the moment

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:26:13 GMT

I'm considering Adventure Maker or possibly GameSalad.

Both are low-cost, accessible options for development of iPhone games, and both fall short of the feature set I'd consider essential for the development of "Isola Gardens".
(http://www.IsolaGardens.com).

Simply put, whichever toolset is better-developed by the time I'm going seriously into production on "Isola Gardens" and...

Myst for the iPhone

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:19:52 GMT

Myst for the iPhone
---------------------

Simply put, the original Myst is being ported to the iPhone by Cyan Worlds, you can see their page here:
http://cyanworlds.com/iPhone/Myst_iVersion/Welcome.html

Note also that Cyan Worlds is basically out of free, allocatable cash right now and they're kind of barely hanging on as a company at the moment. They're down from an...

Peculiar email I got from Poland.

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:25:05 GMT

Hello,
My name is Peter, I'm a Boy Scout from Poland
In order to the Thinking Day that is on 22 February I want to wish you and your Troop all the best and remember to stay positive no matter what comes.

So,
BE PREPARED!

Completely random, out-of-context excerpt of chat with Robyn Miller

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:23:01 GMT

Robyn:

"- making strange converted humans that can be our slaves... this will be the real temptation for future generations. We'll convince ourselves that they "don't have the capacity for the wealth of human emotion; that they're subhuman." We will making them loyal and subservient, like dogs. They will give them no ambition except the ambition to please us. They will be emotionally stupid though though we will make them mechanically intelligent and very...

Excerpts of chats with Kendra and Nathan Hornbostel

feeds@yuku.com (matthornb) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:08:10 GMT

Kendra says:

Nathan is 13, nearly 14 now. I'm sure you have influenced his interest! He got several good sequences but is already finding out how it can be hard to get the actors to do what you want and the footage goes by awfully fast! Maybe he will have something to show you by Christmas. [she means Christmas 2009] We found a big piece of cheap felt that is a pretty good green screen (why would anyone buy such ugly felt?) so he has had fun with that, trying to make our...