Happy holidays! 2014-2015

Random Picture: Happy Holidays 2014-2015

So it's almost a done deal.  A "new" year is right around the corner!  I have a fairly long post this time, some game related and some rants.  So I'll break it down into sections.

-Game dev related-

I finished the main retopologizing on the witch.  It took a lot longer than I wanted it to due to laziness and a bunch of stuff that needed my attention.

I'm currently modeling in details that probably aren't really necessary, but I need the practice since I'm still an ubber nubber.

I'll try to get her done before my Xmas break is over.

-RANTS (not game dev related, read if board)-


--Rice Krispies toys for less fortunate children...--

OK If you don't know what I'm talking about take a look at this first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tya8UtlOIA

Yes - yes, it sounds like an awesome idea.  Who doesn't want to see a child less fortunate have a happy Christmas?  So what's my problem with the above advertising then?

That kid has like 4 presents already!  I grew up poor!  And that house hold is defiantly not poor!

So ya, major fail snap crackle pop, on trying to depict poverty in a 1st world country....



--CBSA (Canadian Border Service Agency) AKA: the fucking fuckers who (proverbially) fucked my ass at Christmas!--

So you learn something new everyday.  I've heard the stories about items being withheld at customs and duties and fees being rammed down the throats of people who buy cars and other big purchases across the border.

When I started ordering anime dvd's from Crunchy, everything seemed fine.  Usually I would get just one dvd on special.  It would come in the mail and all was well.  I didn't think that I would be charged some arbitrary and random fee at some point.

On black Friday they had some pretty good specials, so I took the liberty of buying some of the full season dvd sets of the series I liked enough to actually own.  Since I've never had problems with customs for single dvd's, I'm going to assume that the box with 4 dvd's set off CBSA's "lets screw this guy" sensor.

Anyway, today I got my box of dvd's and was sheepishly asked by the mail lady for 26.70 (rounded).  I was pretty surprised in a WTF kind of way.  I thought I was hearing things, and then she explained what the fee was about, and that if I did not cough up the money she was going to withhold my mail.  She sympathetically told me a story where she got screwed when she sent something back to the US.

Realizing that trying to go against the policy and procedure was just going to cost me more if I started my grievance on the spot, I reluctantly handed her the money.  She told me there was a number on the slip I could call to dispute the charge.

I was pretty shocked and really pissed off.  The stupidity and ridiculousness of our services and government in Canada have just set a new low in my book......  I've heard the really outrageous and somewhat unbelievable story's about the border service, but this is the first time I have actually had to deal with them.  I feel like I've entered the Twilight Zone..

First-  Where the fuck do they get the idea they can just arbitrarily tax me at random?!  Sales taxes are suppose to be billed at the TIME OF SALE!  Billing the person after the fact, leads to double dipping.  Not to mention the person is left on the spot for an amount that, that person may not be able to pay!  It's called extortion!

Second- How the hell did they come up with 130.00 (rounded) dollars value?!  This dose not take into account the actual sale and specials!  I essentially got taxed for money I did not spend!

Third- While I don't like having my PRIVATE mail opened by strangers without warrant, I understand that sometimes they need to make sure no harmful stuff gets into the country.  However this dose not seem to be the reason they violated my charter rights and freedom.  They charged me 10 dollars (rounded) to take the privilege of violating my charter rights just so they could tax me some arbitrary amount!

The way I see it, this is extortion, plain and simple.

I could appeal this, but it's been my experience that if you go along with the dummy system, you end up spending more.  Even if you get a "discount", you become a dummy yourself.  As much as I hate giving in on principle alone, my time is worth more then 26 dollars that I probably will not entirely get back even if I successfully appeal it...

This rant may not amount to much.  But it's been my experience that simply stating your dissatisfaction in a public place often attracts others who where wronged.  And is the start of change.

Thankfully we still have (some) freedom of speech in this country.....


Edit: bunch of corrections.

Too Tired to Tile.

I finally had enough with doing tiles and wasn't getting any work done due to epically overpowering boredom....... So I moved to re-topologising the witch cause I messed it up pretty bad with topology that doesn't really deform well.  I also tweaked a few areas that where lacking definition before I started using it as a base.

Random Picture: Because that's what I said!

Almost nothing to do with game development: Opinion of various incidents and happenings around Canada.

Its defiantly been an “interesting” couple of weeks in Canada.

I probably should just let it go, but I've been itching to voice my concerns/grievances in a public capacity. I usually post on a newspaper blog to do this, but most of the newspapers have unofficially declared national censorship day/week and chicken-shitted out of letting people express themselves in the form of text comments.....

Anyway......

-----WALL-O-TEXT Warning----

First concerns/grievance~

The shooter last week that attempted to take out members of parliament with a duck gun is NOT a terrorist. That is my honest opinion on the matter. While most people will paint him that color for convenience sake. I see him as a person that finally had enough with the system that serves only the 1% ( term used for laziness sake).

Not saying that what he did was right, but I can understand his anger and frustration.

Our politicians don't seem to know/care how the majority of this country has to live and constantly sends the shit down hill instead of sending it to where it belongs. I realize that it's not just Canada that is having this problem, but since it's my backyard I'll have to settle for caring for it only, for now.

If I had to summarize what is wrong with this country, people have generally lost their freedom. Taxes and fees are at an all time high in both quality and quantity. Things that never got taxed before (like tips), and have been a salvation to those that don't make a hell of a lot, are now the top tax cheat to be rooted out......

While it may seem that people are richer than their senior counterparts this could not be farther from the truth. A lot of junky things have become more affordable, but the price of necessities has skyrocketed.

Young people (and some older) are pushed into getting a higher education to “get a better job”. Leaving them in debt for a huge portion of their lives. And no real guarantee of getting better employment after all the hassle.

Poverty is something that you have to experience to understand. I'm doing pretty good right now, but I still remember what it was like to (seriously) count pennies and debate if I should break that 5....

I doubt very much that his motives where fulled by some jihad pep talk..... 

I could go on forever on this topic but I have other things to vent on.

----------------------------

Second concerns/grievance~

The next one, I normally ignore stories like these, but the Jian Ghomeshi allegations have PO'ed me for a few reasons.

First off~

The women he allegedly practiced BDSM with (to the best of my knowledge) crawled into bed with him willingly. It really should not be his fault if he preformed in a way that was not to their liking. They had the right to slap him and leave. I'm going to guess that most of them put up with it for various reasons, even if they did not like such role play.

Second~

These are not maidens that where married off after finishing high school to an abusive husband, with no chance of escape because women “belonged in the kitchen”. For all intended purposes women are able to vote and seek employment. I imagine most, if not all these women were well established older women that have been “around the block” a few times. They where not dependent on him in any way.

Third~

They took too long to report the alleged abuse! At this point it's going to be a kangaroo court with his word vs theirs. If something is important to you, you do something about it right away. You don't wait 10 years without making a claim or report and then all of a sudden say “hey I know that man! He stole my wallet 10 years ago!”.  

It's hard to tell if these women where unhappy that the playboy dumped them when he got board, or a bunch of prospectors that are grieving their rejected mining claim....

Forth~

I find the practice of firing an employee that has not been properly convicted in a legal court, incredibly disturbing. I have heard of too many horror stories like his, where the man is presumed guilty on the word of a “crying maiden”.

So to summarize~

-There is no real way to know who is telling the truth, other than taking one sides word for it. Considering Jian already made a public statement, I imagine that it's going to be hard to knock him down easily, like women typically do in these cases.

-These women where not innocent maidens that where forced to be with him though social constraints. They may have not known what they where getting into, but they had ample opportunity to put an end to it themselves! Without involving the tax payers services.....

-They waited way to long to make a report. They where not choir boys being molested the “all knowing” priest. They where adult women that are responsible for their own lives.

-This will become a he said, she said kangaroo court case that will only serve to waste tax payers money. When it could have been handled with a slap to the face and a “I'm leaving you jerk off”.

-There is nothing fundamentally wrong with BDSM.

-And finally CBC had no right to fire him without a legal conviction. Regardless of what happened.

---------------------

Third and final concerns/grievance~

It was pretty obvious that Justin Bourque was going down for some hard time, and I can't say that I disagree with the verdict......

So what's my problem then? The two (possibly more) tired “justice system”, that's what!

It's so painfully obvious that police get special treatment when it comes down to it. James Forcillo that (allegedly~) murdered the kid on the street car in Toronto, is still on the job waiting for his day in court while Bourque gets triad and sentenced in record time.

What I would love to see is WIFI body cams attached to any security or law enforcement that is allowed to openly carry restricted weapons, that would give live coverage on an open website so any member of the public could watch and be witness without bias oversight.

I could write a book on the injustice and extreme danger of police misconduct, but I already raved enough on this post.

Suffice to say, I absolutely hate injustice. And when I see a member of law enforcement get away with something that would normally send someone to jail. I see great injustice....

Now that I've cleared the air......

I'm still working on tiles in an ever so slow and steady pace.

Example 1 shows the new ground and grass tile (it's actually 3 tiles put together). I'm pretty satisfied with it compared to the other one I made (Example 2). As I was making it I realized what I could improve on, but for now it's a lot better then the last one, has a few more variations and can be tiled more dynamically. I haven't put them all into unity and tested to see if they all link up seamlessly yet, but I'm fairly confident that I've found a work flow that lets me make fairly nice seamless tiles in Blender.

Example 3 shows an example of the tile cover I made for the “ground” tile. I made more than one and will probably make a few more for comedic value and to keep things constantly “fresh”.

Example 4 is just the scaled down version of Ex 2. I made the new ground tile so that it can be used and look (reasonably) nice at its base scale.  This will save a lot of time and memory when building the stage as I'll need less tiles to make more ground.

That's it for now.