Positional Distortion

Caine’s Arcade

via Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing:

Nirvan says: “I just finished this short film about a 9-year-old boy’s elaborate DIY cardboard arcade. Caine made his arcade using boxes from his dad’s used auto parts store. He hadn’t had many customers, so we set up a fun flashmob to make his day, and filmed his response.

My favorite part:

…I asked Caine how it worked and he told me that for $1 I could get four turns, or for $2 I could get a Fun Pass with 500 turns. I got the Fun Pass.

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Project Kara via BoingBoing

The video kick I’m on today continues. This one goes well with the Waking Life scene I posted earlier, bringing up the concept of identity and free will. Sadly for Kara (the robot in this video), her free will is identified as a flaw. Maybe free will is the flaw in us too?

Double Fine Adventure

“Over a six-to-eight month period, a small team under Tim Schafer’s supervision will develop Double Fine’s next game, a classic point-and-click adventure. Where it goes from there will unfold in real time for all the backers to see.”

The kickstarter project for Tim Shafer’s new point-and-click adventure game has gotten completely out of control, netting over $3 million in contributions. Shafer is the brain behind the adventure classics Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. His company, Double Fine, is also responsible for their recent critical success, Stacking.

I’ll admit, I had no real interest myself until I was charmed by Shafer’s irreverent pitch video. Each of the follow-up updates are also worth a watch (there’s even a bloopers real).

Waking Life - Free Will and Physics

One of my favorite scenes from the psychedelic 2001 animated movie Waking Life. It’s a three minute journey through the modern dialogue surrounding free will and how it relates to physics, personal identity and morality.

Me? I’m an old fashioned determinist, but even that comes with its own set of problems.

The Fertile Desert by Roy Two Thousand

The Burn starts in 184 days!

A new animated short from Patrick Boivin, the same talent behind the sensational Iron Baby that toured the net a few weeks back. Hats off to my coworker Josh and Laughing Squid for bringing this to my attention!